Development of Elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881 9780773566323

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The Development of Elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881

Challenging accepted notions that elite dominance defined Acadian ideology, Sheila Andrew attributes the development of the Acadian elites not to the "Acadian renaissance" or an Acadian nationalist spirit but to emerging economic and political opportunities. Through an objective analysis of the formation and composition of elites in New Brunswick from 1861 to 1881, she argues that there was no single elite class among Acadians, only a series of elites who were neither united nor in a position to influence Acadian society as a whole. She identifies four elite classes - the farming elite, the commercial elite, the educated elite, which includes priests and professionals, and the political elite - and examines their family and community backgrounds and career paths to determine how they achieved elite status. She also investigates patterns of networking growth and continuity among elites as well as the relationship between elites and non-elites. Arguing that Acadian nationalism did not fit the traditional pattern of nationalism in a colonized country because of the peculiar nature of Acadian society and the minority status of francophone Acadians within anglophone New Brunswick, she situates the Acadian experience within the context of other cultural and linguistic minorities. SHEILA ANDREW is associate professor of history, St Thomas University.

McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History Donald Harman Akenson, Editor 1 Irish Migrants in the Canadas A New Approach Bruce S. Elliott 2 Critical Years in Immigration Canada and Australia Compared Freda Hawkins (Second edition, 1991) 3 Italians in Toronto Development of a National Identity, 1875-1935 John E. Zucchi 4 Linguistics and Poetics of Latvian Folk Songs Essays in Honour of the Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Kr. Barons Vaira Vikis-Freibergs 5 Johan Schr0der's Travels in Canada, 1863 Orm 0verland 6 Class, Ethnicity, and Social Inequality Christopher McAll 7 The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict The Maori, the British, and the New Zealand Wars James Belich 8 White Canada Forever Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British Columbia W. Peter Ward (Second edition, 1990) 9 The People of Glengarry Highlanders in Transition, 1745-1820 Marianne McLean 10 Vancouver's Chinatown Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980 KayJ. Anderson

13 The Little Slaves of the Harp Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London, and New York John E. Zucchi 14 The Light of Nature and the Law of God Antislavery in Ontario, 1833-1877 Allen P. Stouffer 15 Drum Songs Glimpses of Dene History Kerry Abel 16 Louis Rosenberg Canada's Jews Edited by Morton Weinfeld 17 A New Lease on Life Landlords, Tenants, and Immigrants in Ireland and Canada Catharine Anne Wilson 18 In Search of Paradise The Odyssey of an Italian Family Susan Gabori 19 Ethnicity in the Mainstream Three Studies of English Canadian Culture in Ontario Pauline Greenhill 20 Patriots and Proletarians The Politicization of Hungarian Immigrants in Canada, 1923-1939 Carmela Patrias 21 The Four Quarters of the Night The Life-Journey of an Emigrant Sikh Tara Singh Bains and Hugh Johnston 22 Resistance and Pluralism A Cultural History of Guyana, 1838-1900 Brian L. Moore

11 Best Left as Indians Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory, 1840-1973 Ken Coates

23 Search Out the Land The Jews and the Growth of Equality in British Colonial America, 1740-1867 Sheldon J. Godfrey and Judith C. Godfrey

12 Such Hardworking People Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto Franca lacovetta

24 The Development of Elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881 Sheila M. Andrew

The Development of Elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881 SHEILA M. ANDREW

McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo

© McGill-Queen's University Press 1996 ISBN 0-7735-1508-9

Legal deposit first quarter 1997 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press is grateful to the Canada Council for support of its publishing program.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Andrew, Sheila M. (Sheila Muriel), 1938The development of elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881 (McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1508-9 1. Acadians - New Brunswick - History - 19th century. 2. New Brunswick - Economic conditions - 19th century.* 3. New Brunswick - Social conditions - 19th century.* 4. New Brunswick - History - 19th century.* I. Tide. II. Series. FC25OO.5-A52 1997 97 1 .5'ioo4i 14 c96-990020-1 F1045-F83A52 1997

This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc. in 10/12 Baskerville.

Contents

Tables and Maps vii Abbreviations

xi

Acknowledgments

xiii

1 Introduction 3 2 The Agricultural Elite 23 3 The Commercial Elite 45 4 The Educated Elite 63 5 The Priests 95 6 The Professional Elite 7 The Politicians

119

140

8 Getting Together: The Moniteur Acadien, Other Associations, the Conventions, and the Concept of an Acadian Nation 170 9 Conclusion 200 Notes 205 Bibliography Index

253

237

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Tables and Maps

TABLES

1 Changes in Acadian elites, 1861-81 17 2 Geographic distribution of elite Acadian farmers, 1861-71 26 3 Elite farm acreage by parish, 1861 27 4 Growth of local markets for Acadian produce, 1861-71 28 5 Age of household head on elite Acadian farms, 1861-71 29 6 Family labour on elite Acadian farms, 1861 -71 30 7 Off-farm occupations of elite farm families, 1861-71 31 8 Crops providing elite standing, by parish, 1861-71 33 9 Off-farm status of elite farmers, 1861-71 34 10 Elite farm acreage by parish, 1871 37 11 Timber production of elite Acadian farmers, 1871 39 12 Ploughs owned by elite farmers and average number of ploughs per farm, by parish, 1871 40 13 Activities of elite farmers of 1871 by 1881 42

viii Tables and Maps 14 Acadian commercial elite by year, R.G. Dun rating a*nd evaluation, 1864, 1871, and 1880 47 15 Commercial elite, markets and communications, 1864-80 49 16 Non-commercial status of Acadian commercial elite, 1864, 1871, and 1880 54 17 Francophone schoolteachers in the New Brunswick census, 1861 67 18 Acadian students over 16 in New Brunswick, geographic origins and francophone influences, 1861 70 19 Age of head of household for students over 16 in 1861 census 70 20 Farm size and farm status of parents of students over 16 in 1861 72 21 Off-farm occupations of parents of students over 16, 1861, 1871, and 1881 72 22 Status of parents of students over 16, 1861, 1871, and 1881 73 23 Identifiable francophone former college students in New Brunswick, 1861 74 24 Family seniority of students over 16 at their place of residence, 1861 75 25 Francophone schoolteachers in the New Brunswick census, 1871 77 26 Acadian students over 16, geographic origins and francophone influences, 1871 78 27 Farm size and status of parents of students over 16 in 1871 80 28 Age of head of household for students over sixteen, 1871 80 29 Family seniority of students over 16 at their place of residence, 1871 83 30 Francophone schoolteachers in the New Brunswick census,

1881

86

ix Tables and Maps

31 Acadian students over 16, geographic origins and francophone influences, 1881 88 32 Acadian students over 16 from elite farm families, 1881 89 33 Age of head of household for students over 16, 1881 90 34 Family seniority of students over 16 at their place of residence, 1881 91 35 Identifiable francophone former college students or males in school over 16 in New Brunswick, 1881 92 36 Acadian priests in New Brunswick, 1861-81 98 37 Known parents of Acadian priests in New Brunswick, 1861-81 99 38 Farm size of known parents of Acadian priests, 1861 and 1871 100 39 Status of Acadian priests in New Brunswick, 1861-81 40 Parishes of Acadian priests in New Brunswick, 1861-81 105 41 Francophone professionals in New Brunswick, 1861-81 120 42 Parents of Acadian professionals in New Brunswick, 1861-81: age, occupation, education, and status 123 43 Farm size of parents of Acadian professionals in New Brunswick, 1861-81 124 44 Changing locations of New Brunswick francophone professionals, 1861-81 126 45 Status of francophone professionals, 1861-81 129 46 Location and political and economic status of Acadian politicians to 1861 144 47 Known parents of Acadian politicians: farm size

146

48 Known parents of Acadian politicians: age, occupation, education, and status 147 49 Location and political and economic status of Acadian politicians to 1871 150

103

x Tables and Maps 50 Status of Acadian politicians

151

51 Career paths of Acadian politicians 158 52 Location and political and economic status of Acadian politicians to 1881 162 53 Moniteur Acadien subscribers in New Brunswick by county, 1867-81 173 54 Moniteur Acadien subscribers in New Brunswick by status, 1867-81 174 55 Acadian militia officers, by county and status, 1861-71 183 56 Acadian justices of the peace, by county, 1861-81

186

57 Acadian justices of the peace, by status, 1861-81 187 58 Lay participants in the Convention movement, 1880-81 195 MAPS

1 Areas of Acadian Settlement, 1861 6 2 Acadian Population Centres

7

3 Rail and River Communications in Acadian New Brunswick, .1861-81 8 4 Acadian Census Districts 10

Abbreviations

AAQ ACND ASHND CEA JHA JP MA MC MHA MP NA PANE

Archives of the Archdiocese of Quebec Archives of the Congregation de Notre-Dame Archives of the Societe d'Histoire Nicolas Denys Centre d'Etudes Acadiennes, Universite de Moncton Journal of the House of Assembly, Province of New Brunswick Justice of the peace Le Moniteur Acadien Municipal councillor Member of the House of Assembly Member of Parliament National Archives of Canada Public Archives of New Brunswick

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Acknowledgments

This book was inspired by Acadian friends who did not fit the image of people easily led by members of any elite. I am also very grateful to members of the University of New Brunswick History Department for their patience, guidance, and constant encouragement. I would particularly like to recognize the support of the late Dr Bernard Vigod, Dr T.W. Acheson, and Dr E.R. Forbes. Dr Naomi Griffiths and historian Fidele Theriault have been valuable allies. I would also like to thank the anonymous readers for McGill-Queen's University Press and archival staff at the Universite de Moncton, the National Archives, and the Public Archives of New Brunswick for their assistance. My husband, Tim, has dealt with the technical problems. There would have been no book without his help.

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The Development of Elites in Acadian New Brunswick, 1861-1881

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i Introduction

The elite in any group consists of those who are most successful in achieving the common aim of that group.1 These aims could include gaining wealth, skill, or status. They frequently include gaining power to promote the interests of the group. This makes the study of elites an important topic. Power can corrupt even those who originally sought it for unselfish reasons. We need to know how people become members of elite groups. What is the basis of their power, and what limits that power? This is of more than academic interest in the 19905, when rapid advances in technology have given elites increasing power to influence others through the media and weapons of mass destruction. The elites of nationalist movements are particularly important: leaders and ordinary people commit great crimes and make great sacrifices for a perceived common good in the name of nationalism. Although political scientists and historians have analysed nationalist elites extensively over the last century, recently the focus and definitions have changed. This suggests the need to re-examine some of our assumptions about earlier nationalist movements. From the nineteenth century to the igSos, scholars tended to focus on nationalism in states that were strongly influenced by European traditions. Nationalism was usually defined as the desire for each nation to have its own state.2 Definitions of a nation might recognize the importance of many characteristics, including race or deep historical roots in distinctive cultural institutions such as language, religion, art, custom, myth, and legend. Sometimes a history of political independence would be considered significant. Nationalist leaders often presented the goal of

4

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

their movements as a return to past glory. However, as the focus of studies has widened to include nationalist groups less influenced by Western traditions, definitions have changed. Many groups who consider themselves nationalist do not want their own state.3 People can also consider themselves part of a nation without these characteristics. Current definitions of a nation are therefore simpler. Benedict Anderson has called the nation an Imagined Community.^ Michael Watson says it is any group who think of themselves as a nation because they recognize "a shared system of ideas, signs, associations, ways of behaving and communicating, with mutual rights and duties."5 Interpretations of elite roles have also changed. In the nineteenth century political leaders of nationalist movements were seen as heroes. After the Second World War many saw them as defenders of minority rights and democracy. The nationalism of colonized countries was acceptable to many because it represented a majority seeking independence from the rule of a minority. As minority nationalists in Europe continued to look for more autonomy, if not necessarily for a separate state, their leaders seemed to be part of a healthy reaction to regional inequalities and insensitive bureaucratic states. However, Hitler had shown that a minority could use nationalism to destroy democracy, and many of the new regimes in former colonies became totalitarian.6 Liberals saw that by rousing hostility against a colonizing power or some other external group, leaders encouraged the sacrifice of individual rights and tried to enforce a homogeneous culture. Superior education and social skills could easily be used to dominate others.7 Scholars trained in the Marxist tradition became suspicious of the bourgeois elites who led nationalist movements and used the enthusiasm of ordinary people to strengthen elite power and prosperity.8 Even non-Marxists have used the word "betrayal" to describe the behaviour of some members of nationalist elites.9 Support for these elites has sometimes been aroused through the blatant use of national symbols and emotionally slanted, often invented history. Sometimes urbanized elites have moved into business and controlled the surrounding countryside through commerce.10 Sometimes they have adopted the standards of their colonizers while encouraging others to cling to traditional standards.11 Sometimes they have been more subtle. Antonio Gramsci described the elite strategy of convincing ordinary people to try to live like the elite, while making it very difficult for them to become elite. Shared standards of education, manners, or wealth become an almost impenetrable barrier. New members of the elite must be chosen and instructed by established members.12 Shared associations then allow the various elites to get together and agree on a plan of action.13 In America, C. Wright Mills showed how big corporations,

5

Introduction

military leaders, politicians, and the political executive could unite as one "power elite."14 Detailed studies have shown, however, that betrayal of ordinary people by a combination of elite interests is not a model that works everywhere. First, it is difficult for elites to work together.15 A pattern of interlocking elites with some conflicting aims is more common than the occasional convergence of elites acting together as a "power elite." Second, ordinary people are not necessarily gullible dupes. Historians like E.P. Thompson in Britain have shown that those who do not have an elite education still have their own culture.16 They will not necessarily join a movement that begins with only the values of another class.17 By 1990 EJ. Hobsbawm had put this clearly in Nations and Nationalism: "Official ideologies of states and movements are not guides to what is in the minds of the most loyal citizens or supporters ... We can not assume that for most people national identification - when it exists excludes or is always or ever superior to the remainder of the set of identifications which constitute the social being."18 In 1994 John Breuilly called nationalism "political pragmatism." Ordinary people could adopt it without a middle-class elite to establish any ideology. Where the educated middle class has tried to co-ordinate several elites, mobilize mass support, and legitimize a movement in the eyes of the outside world, their ideology has still been no more than a general guide. It might change with time or the regions of the nation and will not always shape specific actions.19 This book re-examines the development of the nineteenth-century Acadian nationalist movement in the light of these changing critical and interpretive perspectives. The Acadians are the French-speaking population of the Canadian Maritime provinces.20 Their changing situation and growing nationalism in the nineteenth century is an important part of the overall picture of elite development because at first sight their nationalism fits many of the traditional criteria for Europeanized nationalism or the nationalism of a colonized country. It was a nationalism expressed at the same time that the political power of those seeing themselves as a nation increased.21 It spread as the literacy of the people increased and economic change allowed a new middle class to emerge.22 It depended on the conscious use of language and the development of unifying institutions.23 Increasing awareness of economic inequality between those who shared the national language and those who spoke the major language of government brought further support for nationalism, and appeals to past glory gave it emotional strength.24 This study focuses on the Acadians who lived in New Brunswick because, in the mid-nineteenth century, they had many of the

6

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Map i Areas of Acadian Settlement, 1861. Information based on Graeme Wynn, "Parish Boundaries before 1861."

characteristics of a nation. The most obvious of these were the use of French and the shared Roman Catholic religion. They had some territorial unity: most lived in the northern counties of Gloucester and Madawaska or in the adjoining eastern counties of Kent and Westmorland. (See Map i.) They shared similar socio-economic roots, as most of them were fishermen or farmers. They also had a shared history, centred on a time of comparative independence when they were a neglected colony of France and on the tragedies of the period from 1755 to 1764, when the British and New England authorities took over the colony and tried to deport all the Acadians. They had the problems of a colonized country because the British governors and many New England settlers had stayed in the area and been joined by Loyalists and Scots, Irish, and English immigrants. Anglophones became the majority in the province and dominated government, commerce, most of the provincial resources, and even the senior positions in the Catholic church. The origins of the Acadian nationalist movement fit the nineteenthcentury pattern in many ways. The movement was sparked by a new interest in politics. As Catholics, Acadians were not allowed to vote until 1810 or to hold government office until 1830. After these rights were granted, Acadians slowly developed the political skills to take advantage of then through the growing number of local government

7 Introduction

Map 2 Acadian population centres. (Name) = town with minor Acadian population.

posts established at the parish level by the New Brunswick government in the 18408 and i85os.25 Better communications helped Acadians to see themselves as a nation. As roads improved, railways were built, and the school system developed, Acadians from previously isolated communities found they had common interests. (See Maps 2 and 3 for Acadian communities, rivers, and railways.) Acadians took specialized jobs in small towns rather than villages, and a small professional, commercial, and office-holding middle class emerged. Together with the priests, they began to be recognized by the anglophone politicians and media as spokesmen for Acadians. Like many other minority nationalist elites, the emerging Acadian elites relied on continued use of the minority language for some of their power. The same class developed institutions intended to unite Acadians. The most important of these were a newspaper, Le Moniteur Acadien, founded in Shediac, Westmorland, in 1867, and a series of conventions intended to meet at regular intervals to discuss common interests. The leaders wrote and spoke about the need to better the Acadian situation. Improved communications and mobility had made inequality between Acadians and the anglophones who occupied the better farmland of the lower St John Valley increasingly evident. Some leaders appealed to past glory and the traditional rural Acadian lifestyle as a source of strength. Following the political theorist Gaetano

8

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Maps Rail and River Communications in Acadian New Brunswick 1861-81. Information from G.R. Stevens, Canadian National Railways.

Mosca and Michael Hechter's more recent work on internal colonialism, historians have interpreted this tactic as typical of elites who owe their power to the status quo and are reacting to the threat of industrialization and urbanization.26 However, a closer look reveals many differences from the traditional pattern. Because of the peculiar nature of Acadian society, nineteenthcentury Acadian nationalism became an early example of political pragmatism, for its leaders did not suggest an independent nation-state. Acadians were not a colonized majority: they were only 15.7 per cent of the population of New Brunswick in i87i. 27 For this reason the educated elite who presented themselves as spokesmen for Acadians rarely based their nationalism on open hostility to the majority.28 It was difficult for the various elites to unite and dominate ordinary Acadians in the name of nationalism. The population was too diverse for the imposition of one homogeneous nationalist image.29 Some families lived by fishing and farming, but those who depended entirely on fishing had a very different lifestyle from the farmers.30 Differences between the regions also made it hard to impose the idea of a shared culture. Acadians were clustered in areas that were culturally and physically separated. Most of the fishermen lived in Gloucester County, where they had limited opportunities to enjoy new markets because of the poor soil and the fishing companies' control of the cash economy.

9 Introduction

The Madawaska region was separated from the other Acadian counties by many miles of sparsely inhabited forest. Situated on the border with Quebec, it attracted many settlers from that region. Their lifestyle was similar to that of other farmers, but their continuing connections with neighbouring Quebec for education and trade sometimes separated them from the educated middle class of Kent and Westmorland in the southeast. There were also differences based on rates of urbanization and education. Madawaska Acadians had been attending the Quebec College Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere since the 18305, paying fees by selling farm produce to the timber camps. They had been linked to the government in Fredericton by the Saint John River, and their position on the frontier with the United States meant that the government made special efforts to keep their loyalty by recruiting them to militia and minor government offices. However, urbanization proceeded more quickly in Kent and Westmorland, so Madawaska lost its early lead in the number of educated professionals produced, and the interests of the two regions diverged. Even within the Kent-Westmorland elites, political conventions showed deep divisions based on local interests. The two counties were rivals for railways and secondary schools. Each region had separate economic priorities and its own anglophone population to deal with. Communication was still difficult, even after the Intercolonial Railway linked the counties. Travel took time and money, and the francophone population was scattered in many small communities. Only 2.2 per cent of Acadians lived in communities of 5,000 or more in 1871, and in 1881 this had risen to only 17.47 Per cent. Acadians were also less likely than French Canadians to be a majority within an urbanized community. Census figures show that in 1871 only 16.4 per cent lived in census districts with more than 3,000 Acadians, and by 1881 the figure was 27.23 per cent. (See Map 4 for Acadian census districts.) Even by 1881 the significant Acadian colonies in the growing towns of Bathurst, Dorchester, and Shediac were still only parts of a commercial town economy rather than a full-fledged industrial city, and Jean-Roch Cyr found only 102 Acadians in Moncton.31 A nationalist movement could not rely on a large, uprooted, urbanized proletariat in need of "roots" for support, as many other nationalist movements have done,32 for there was no metropolitan centre to provide a focus. It could not rely on the media to develop mass support, because many Acadians could not read or write: the 1871 census showed 53-49 per cent illiteracy in Gloucester and Kent.33 Nor could it rely on the power of an established social hierarchy based on wealth or office to give unity and power to the rising elites. In Acadian society there was no seigneurial class to exercise the control that the Taschereaus or

io

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Map 4 Acadian Census Districts. Information based on Graeme Wynn, "Parish Boundaries before 1861," and census.

Bouchervilles had in their areas of Quebec. In the church no francophone had yet risen beyond the rank of grand vicaire, and the clergy were comparatively poor because their parishioners were poor. There were no equivalents to the Sulpician estates in Quebec to provide church income. The Deportation had provided a very strong unifying and levelling historical experience. This was no arguable question of whether the natural leaders of society had left Quebec at the Conquest: the Deportation clearly disrupted the development of an economic elite and took almost all returning Acadians back to the stage of pioneer farmers. The urbanized elites that did develop by 1881 did not fit the model of those who dominated surrounding rural areas through commerce. Taking part in an urbanized economy provided cash to pay for education or to start businesses, but it did not necessarily make the professionals or merchants rich. Anglophones provided stiff competition. Urbanization created a market for Acadian land, and some farmers chose to sell, thus increasing the available cash. Rising land prices put pressure on Acadian families to find off-farm occupations for children when buying land for them became more expensive. These occupations and sales made money available for college and professional education and increased the importance of education in providing alternative occupations as farms became too small to support the

11 Introduction

family. Urbanization therefore enhanced the demand for francophone colleges in the Kent-Westmorland area. However, no evidence has yet shown that it permitted capital accumulation at a level that would give the urbanized Acadian elite significant power over rural Acadians before 1881. Beginning from a recognition of the particular conditions of Acadians and the changing perspectives on minority nationalism, this book is a detailed study of those Acadians who were most successful in farming, commerce, education, the professions, and politics during the early years of the Acadian nationalist movement. It examines the way that many obtained to elite status, how they used it, and how they related to each other. Historians have already suggested some answers to these questions. They provide interesting insights and suggest the limited value of applying previous models of elites developing in a time of growing nationalism to the particular case of the Acadians. Using the model of a return to past glories, clerical historians such as Antoine Bernard have called the socio-economic and political changes in nineteenth-century Acadia a renaissance: a rebirth of a pre-Conquest French culture. Bernard also saw it as part of the shared history of Quebec and Acadia, with Quebec as the senior partner. He was sure that Quebec-born priests brought the renaissance to New Brunswick and spread it from above by educating elite Acadians.34 Bernard recognized the importance of Catholicism and the French language as unifying factors among Acadians. He noted the undeniable importance of the first surviving French secondary college in New Brunswick, St-Joseph, which was founded by a Quebec teaching order and educated many elite Acadians. However, as Martin Spigelman has already pointed out, Bernard did not recognize the distinct traditions and heritage of Acadian society.35 The development of elites in Acadia was not a rebirth of a common heritage. Acadians did not identify completely with Quebec or with France because frequent English invasions and trading with the English colonies had given them separate interests. They had a long history of attempted neutrality between English and French and few reasons to be grateful to French authorities stationed in Quebec. Spigelman has also shown that francophone priests could not easily help Acadians because the priests had to represent the whole Catholic church. In New Brunswick this meant negotiating with Irish Catholic bishops and priests who did not want Catholicism too strongly associated with French.36 Jean-Claude Vernex has argued that Acadians had a separate heritage based on rural society and considers that the rise of elites was the result of a francophone clerical response to threats from industrialization, secularization, and assimilation that

12 Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

threatened this heritage.37 His thesis recognizes the threats to clerical power but fails to recognize how much these threats limited the control that Acadian priests could exercise over Acadians. Raymond Mailhot was the first to emphasize the contribution of laymen and of economic change.38 He saw that there were new opportunities in the Acadian counties of New Brunswick after 1860 that allowed elite development. However, finding a parallel with Marxist interpretations of colonized elites, he thought men who made money in farming and commerce failed their own people.39 By his interpretation, the elites soon developed ties through kinship, institutions, and common standards of education and culture that helped them to reach consensus on some topics. This made them a united elite that excluded other Acadians. According to Mailhot, the elite looked after their own interests and used nationalist institutions to manipulate other Acadians because they did not have the power to improve the lives of all Acadians. Mailhot particularly objected to elite use of agrarian nationalist ideals. Like many Quebec priests, some of the Acadian educated elite told ordinary Acadians that farm life was more moral than commerce and more appropriate for Acadians. To Mailhot this constituted an effort to keep the average Acadian "down on the farm" in comparative poverty. The prise de conscience he wrote about was the growing understanding that Acadians had common interests and aims that the elite did not promote.40 Martin Spigelman reinforces this idea by concluding that the prise de conscience was separation from Quebecborn elites and the establishment of separate Acadian educational and nationalist institutions to promote the interests of the educated elite.41 The analyses of Mailhot and Spigelman were based on studies of general trends in the censuses, the correspondence of priests and politicians, and the Moniteur Acadien. However this study contends that closer examination of the lives of individual elite Acadians and the composition of elite institutions up to the end of the first National Convention in 1881 shows significant differences. There was not one elite class but several categories of elite men. These were not yet exclusive but open to men of ability from prosperous farming regions. The elites were not united. They were not able to dominate and betray the ordinary Acadian in politics or by advocating agrarian ideals. The excitement of the changing world of New Brunswick Acadians between 1861 and 1881 was the product of a general improvement of the economy in Acadian farming areas and the informed decisions of Acadians who took advantage of this improvement. These are the conclusions of a study that begins by examining what made an individual elite, then identifying the Acadians in four elite

13

Introduction

categories.42 The first is the farming elite, which provided the basis for the development of other elites. Establishing provincial standards for this elite was difficult. The 1861 and 1871 censuses give detailed information on every farm. (Unfortunately, the 1881 details have not survived.) These show that the size of a holding or even the amount of cleared land does not necessarily indicate a successful farmer because some areas were more fertile than others. The 1861 census gives each farm a cash value, and the most valuable farms were not those with the most cleared land. Cash assessments do not correlate with the number of livestock, crop productivity, or employed labour. A high valuation often meant that the farmer was active in local affairs, and the assessors valued his land accordingly, supporting suspicions that 1861 New Brunswick census-takers did not work according to impartial economic standards.43 Cash value could not be used to measure elites as there are no values for 1871. Available labour is not a measure of value unless balanced against food production, consumption, and labour requirements.44 Hay alone is not an accurate measure, as farms were not yet sufficiently specialized to rely mainly on livestock.45 Acadian farms may also have used salt-marsh hay and less orthodox feed such as potatoes and pea chaff to supplement hay in winter.46 Horses do not indicate a modern productive farm, as tiny, unprofitable Acadian farms often had one or two horses.47 The number of cows varied according to region, making them a doubtful provincial standard. Many farmers relied on potatoes, pigs, and resilient cereal crops for their profit, as climate and the local market made them a better investment. This means that a provincial standard for the elite has to include several products. Those chosen were hay, as some indication of animals overwintered; butter, indicating the productivity of the cows and as a possible cash commodity; potatoes, as a staple and a cash crop; and the three cereals that grew best on that farm.48 The two 1861 parishes with the highest yields in these commodities were St-Basile in Madawaska and Dorchester in Westmorland. The level for elite production used is as much or more than the average output of the farmers reaching the top i o per cent of production levels in these parishes. The elite farmers considered are Acadians who reached elite levels in two or more of these products in 1861 or 1871. This method of selection provided the names of some farmers in almost every Acadian parish. The second elite was commercial, including the merchants and some other businessmen who prospered by serving the farmers. The American R.G. Dun Mercantile Agency rated New Brunswick businesses, and Acadian names were included from 1852. Local agents reported on the capital backing and business abilities of the firms and rated them

14 Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

according to the risk involved in giving them credit. A "fair" rating suggested a sound small business, and this has been used as the minimum standard for the commercial elite.49 The third and fourth elites relied more on education. The third elite has been divided into three sections: those with above-average education, priests, and professionals. As so many Acadians were illiterate, the definition used for an above-average education is generous: all Acadians over sixteen listed in the censuses as still in school or college are included. Even basic education was an asset in nineteenth-century society, and the census considered sixteen the normal school-leaving age.5° Therefore, families were unlikely to sacrifice the labour of seventeen-year-olds unless they planned to make use of more than basic literary skills to improve the life of the young adult or the family. Acadian teachers deserve a separate, more detailed statistical analysis. However, their numbers and qualifications are noted here, and they were obviously important contributors to the development of this elite and as a bridge-occupation. Many of the priests and the doctors, lawyers, and more senior civil servants who are included in the educated elite taught for a few years.51 The fourth elite is politicians, including any Acadian candidate for election to provincial or federal assemblies.52 A fifth elite would include the most successful fishermen. They are not a major part of this study because they had little interaction with the other elites. Some of the elite farmers reported income from fishing, but only one was also an elite fisherman.53 Fishermen who kept their children over sixteen in school reported less than elite returns. No fisherman became part of the commercial, educated, or political elites. The qualifications established for elite fishermen are similar to those for elite farmers. The parishes with the highest-recorded fish returns in 1861 were Shippagan and Caraquet in Gloucester County. Anyone recording as much or more than the average 1861 cod returns of the top 10 per cent of fishermen in these parishes is considered elite. Comparing the results in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, we can see that fishermen profited from improved markets and communications, just as farmers did. We can also see why Acadian fishermen had not yet become part of any other elite. The fishermen who benefited most were the anglophones andjerseymen, not the Acadians. In 1861 there were ten elite fishermen in Shippagan and Caraquet. They were all Acadians with an average catch of 153 cwt and a range of 110 to 260 cwt. In 1871 there were only eight elite fishermen, and the top four were anglophone or Jerseymen. The catches made by the boats owned by the non-Acadians were far higher than the maximum in 1861, ranging from 700 to 300 cwt. None of these men was recorded as a fisherman

15 Introduction

in 1861, when the highest Acadian catch was still only 260 cwt. The anglophone and Jersey fishing elite of 1871 were four merchants and one former employee of the fishing company. They were all important men in their communities, including an MHA, a municipal councillor, and three justices of the peace, all of whom held useful patronage posts. Two were partners in a fishing company, and two owned general stores that were part of the credit system that made it so difficult for poor fishermen to obtain cash or accumulate capital. If they did not go fishing themselves, they certainly seem to have claimed the profit from any improvement in the markets and kept Acadian fishermen from joining other elites. Another category missing from this study is women. There were powerful women in convents, schools, and parishes, but they did not fit into the categories established here. The topic deserves an extended separate study.54 The first step in analysing the chosen elites was to identify the individual members in the censuses of 1861, 1871, and 1881 and examine their lives and family relationships. The next step was to see how they related to each other and to ordinary Acadians by examining the associations they shared. This meant analysing the subscription lists of the Moniteur Acadien and the lists of delegates to the National Convention in 1881 and the two Quebec St-Jean-Baptiste Society conventions that preceded it. Fortunately, there is also information on associations that did not necessarily have anything to do with nationalism. The Moniteur covered church activities, political nominating conventions, temperance societies, and clubs for drama or music. Government records provide information on the colonization movement, agricultural societies, militia, and local government, so it was possible to get a broad perspective.55 As Mailhot has shown, the changes that developed the elites began before 1861. Government grants had helped to pay for elementary schools, and some parish priests had provided for Acadian education. A few individuals could even get secondary and university education after the foundation of the colleges of Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere near Madawaska in 1829, St-Thomas in Memramcook in 1854, and the convent school of St-Basile de Madawaska in 1858. Amand Landry became the first Acadian MHA in 1846, and increasing numbers of Acadians took part in local government as new counties were established and parishes were allowed to elect more of their officers.56 The changes accelerated between 1861 and 1881. The market for Acadian produce grew. The population of New Brunswick rose from 252,043 in 1861 to 285,594 in 1871 and 321,233 in 1881. The percentage of New Brunswickers living in urban areas also rose, from

16 Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

13.1 per cent in 1861 to 17.6 per cent in i88i.57 Communications improved with the rapid spread of railways, and some of these went through Acadian areas. (See Map 3.) By 1860 there was a railway connecting Shediac, Moncton, and the large urban market of Saint John, and by 1872 it had reached Dorchester and Halifax. The Intercolonial Railway linked Moncton and the Acadian areas of Bathurst and Beresford in Gloucester County to Campbellton by 1875 and to Quebec City by 1876. The Madawaska area had a rail connection to Fredericton by 1878. The increasing number of Acadians in the population gave them increased political significance. There were 44,907 of them in 1871 and 56,635 in i88i.58 They were also increasing faster than the nonAcadian population: they made up 15.7 per cent of the population by 1871 and 17.6 per cent by 1881.59 When they chose to ally themselves with the Irish Catholics, they became a formidable voting bloc within the province. In the marginal areas where they had been allowed to settle after the Deportation, Acadians were a powerful voting bloc by themselves. Circumstances made Acadians particularly aware of their voting potential between 1861 and 1881. New Brunswickers voted twice on Confederation. The first time Acadians found they could defeat it when they were backed by the Irish. The second time they formed a significant minority opposition by themselves. When the provincial government introduced an act to make public schooling rate-funded and secular in 1871, the Acadians found they could take enough action by constitutional and non-constitutional means to get that act modified.60 As a result, the government paid more attention to Acadian needs. This was also a time when government activity was extending into New Brunswick life, and Acadians benefited in a variety of ways. Apart from the pre-i87i grants to education and the post-i87i rate-funding for schools, the provincial government also funded teacher training for francophones, agricultural societies, roads, bridges, and harbours in Acadian areas, and extension of settlement into new areas where Acadians could take up free land under colonization schemes. As opportunities in agriculture, commerce, education, urban occupations, and politics grew, Acadians were able to see the advantages of investing time and money in these activities. There were changes in the elites over the three censuses. Table i shows that more Acadians reached elite status each decade. Acadian chances to build networks also increased. In 1861 Acadians had only the church and a few local government or militia meetings. By 1881 they had two institutions: the Moniteur Acadien, with 698 New Brunswick Acadian subscribers, and the first National Convention, attract-

17

Introduction

Table 1 Changes in Acadian elites, 1861-81

Elite farmers

1861

1871

1881

115

151

n/a

Commercial elite

0

17

Post-primary French schools

2

4

27 10

French teachers*

7 1 1 0

14

Priests Doctors Lawyers Senior civil servants Political elite**

9 2 1

0

0

4

18

12 21 9 3 3 13

* Certified I or n. ** Those running for office before 1861 and between 1861-71 and 1871-81.

ing seventy-six delegates from twenty-one Acadian parishes. They also mixed with non-Acadians, taking a diminishing role in the militia but an increasing part in political organizations and government at all levels. Church activities multiplied, and even secular recreation societies began to flourish. The evidence shows that the result was not yet a closed and exclusive elite. Even the educated elite was not simply recruited by Quebecborn priests imposing their own standards. If this had been true, these priests' earlier attempts to introduce secondary education would have been successful. Acadians had to decide for themselves that education was a useful investment. They needed role-models to show that posts were available for educated Acadians and proof that education was a worthwhile investment.61 Given this proof, even comparatively poor families in farming areas proved willing and able to make that investment. Contrary to Bernard's views, the francophone priests were not the strongest influence in getting Acadians to stay in school. Most students who continued their education after they were sixteen did so because they came from a parish that was willing and able to pay for well-qualified teachers. These were not always the parishes with francophone priests.62 Many Acadians, including some who were members of the elites, were willing to take advantage of educational opportunities that were not Catholic or francophone and to support the 1871 New Brunswick Schools Act. The direct influence of the priests in Acadian society diminished between 1861 and 1881 as laymen had more chance to exercise power in

18 Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

these secular associations. When the Schools Act made schools secular and rate-funded, the clergy led the opposition and attracted dramatic publicity. However, this example of clerical leadership masked the increasing of lay professionals within Acadian institutions whose power was based on increasing urbanization and growing government intervention in local affairs. Several urban associations developed in Moncton, where the population rose from 600 in 1871 to 5,032 in i88i.63 The priests were powerful in the colleges and convents, but many members of the diverse Acadian elites had no contact with these institutions. As the numbers and power of the lay elites increased, the power directly exercised by the priests diminished, until even the colonization movement was dominated by government appointees. Acadian support for Catholicism remained strong: it was important for elite professionals and politicians to promote Catholic values and to take part in church activities. Like the Irish in Toronto or the Welsh who moved into nineteenth-century British towns, Acadians kept up the religious and community values that had previously been important to them.64 However, this did not necessarily include accepting clerical leadership: Acadians had often maintained their faith without priests.65 Nor did it necessarily strengthen the power of the francophone priests. Church activities were important to Acadians because they allowed laymen to make useful connections, but these were often with non-Acadians. Acadian elites were not yet kept exclusive by links of kinship or wealth. Where more than one of a family was a member of an elite, this was the result of ability, not hereditary status. The turnover within elites was high, and children of elite families divided the family fortunes.66 There was downward mobility as well as upward mobility.67 There are some signs of intermarriage between members of elites, but far more of their relations were ordinary Acadians. As all Acadians were still on the margins of the New Brunswick economy, even the elites were not yet rich enough to develop the power to exclude others. The real wealth of New Brunswick was in anglophone hands. Even the commercial elite was not particularly wealthy; average credit ratings improved between 1861 and 1881, but there were no Acadian rivals to the French Canadian entrepreneurs among Gerald Tulchinsky's River Barons.68 The career patterns of professionals and politicians suggest that they were economically insecure and not much better off than the average Acadian. Elites could not yet share an exclusive culture based on education, social skills, or common membership in associations. Several members of the professional and clerical elites had been to College St-Joseph, but many others did not share the "old school tie" or even a secondary

ig Introduction

education. Many of those who had been to St-Joseph or gained a secondary education led undistinguished lives.69 Even the social skills of the educated elite may not have given them much power over ordinary Acadians. These early Acadian elites were still open and fluid, first of all because they were still very close to rural life. Although some studies have suggested that social and geographic mobility was a one-way progression from rural living to a small town and on to a large town,70 this was not always true in Canada.71 It certainly was not true for Acadian politicians and professionals, who moved in both directions and sometimes returned to farming. Secondly, Acadians continued to value kinship ties. Family members kept in touch: reunions for special celebrations were often covered in the Moniteur. Family members characteristically occupied a variety of occupations and status levels. Usually only one child was educated past the age of sixteen, so all those reaching elite status through education had plenty of non-elite relatives. Of course this could work both ways. The family had made sacrifices for a son or sibling's education, and it made sense to benefit from his advice. However, the farmers and artisans who had made these sacrifices might remember that the educated man was still a son or sibling.72 A third reason for the relative instability of Acadian elites was rooted in the past. Acadians were willing to allow others to act as their representatives. They had a long tradition of using intermediaries with government, and the folk memory of the Deportation reinforced their reluctance to get involved with public life. Before the Deportation they had chosen spokesmen from among older males whose status came from their position as heads of families. By the nineteenth century they still chose intermediaries, but these were often younger, educated men. Communication skills had become increasingly important as English language, law, and customs dominated New Brunswick public life.73 However, there is no evidence that Acadians slavishly followed their spokesmen. The small number of Acadian politicians and priests who monopolize the recorded speeches of the period were the men identified by George Marcus as brokers with the world beyond.74 They were not necessarily the men who dominated Acadian opinion. To support the idea that non-elite Acadians made their own decisions, we need only look at the political nominating conventions held in the 18705. Delegates argued energetically with the political elite, and many of the same Acadians who were delegates to the political conventions came to the National Convention. The big difference may be that the arguments there were off the record! The influence of speeches at the National Convention and agrarian letters to the Moniteur was limited. These were only two in a growing network of institutions and

2O

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

associations that helped Acadians to communicate. Members of the elites did not necessarily dominate the executives or the proceedings, since non-elite Acadians served on committees with the elites. The rapid turnover within elites also increased the number of elite and nonelite contacts and made Acadians aware that any power attached to economic or social position was temporary. Doctors, lawyers, priests, and politicians knew that their economic and social influence depended on their response to the needs of those who cast the votes and paid the bills. Few members of the elites were active in more than one association or institution, and many belonged to none.75 Associations that were important in recruiting elites did not necessarily unite or restrict them. On the contrary, they could serve to keep elites more open. The Moniteur Acadien did not reach or represent all members of the elites. Even the National Convention of 1881 represented limited areas of Acadia and dramatized the differences among those of the elites who attended. Those institutions that could have been used to dominate were still part of the system that kept the elites open and allowed those temporarily enjoying elite status to keep in touch with ordinary Acadians and to struggle for their support. Far from reaching consensus, the elites often found that differences based on these community ties became more evident as communications improved. Just as they lacked the power to control ordinary Acadians, most of the educated elite did not want to control them through agrarian ideals. Urbanization within New Brunswick had been limited; so far, it benefited most Acadians. Professionals and merchants worked out of the larger communities, and elite farmers visited the towns to use their services. Some of the cash available was used to buy consumer goods, and advertisements reflect increasing interest in fashions, new music, and new books. The number of associations built on common interests rather than kinship or community increased over the period, and many of these drew their members particularly from among Acadians with increasing experience of town life. They provided useful contacts and experience for ambitious Acadians.76 The move away from the land increased the demand for education. The censuses show a remarkable drop in Acadian landholdings in the Dorchester area, and paradoxically this change developed the other elites. The money to provide education came from prosperous farming areas, but it was not usually the elite farmers who kept their children in school. In some cases, those who continued their education beyond the age of sixteen came from families with no land whose only resource was to take advantage of the education offered. Once they had passed the primary stage, many priests, politicians, and professionals paid for their own further education by teaching in parish schools. This provided more

21

Introduction

francophone teachers and made the elite more open as it allowed poorer men to continue their education. The model of a colonized elite who adopted the standards of the colonizers is relevant to Acadians, but not yet as a symbol of betrayal. Sometimes members of the elites had common interests with the anglophones, not necessarily because they wanted to achieve elite status by joining the colonizing race but because they were all from the same region. These interests allowed Acadians to form alliances with anglophone politicians that could potentially benefit all Acadians. In ridings with more than one member, non-Acadians were often eager to find an Acadian to join them on a party ticket. Acadians then found themselves divided by party as well as by region, but different interpretations of the best response to Acadian needs were not automatically a betrayal of the people. Contact with non-Acadians through militia or local government was an important form of recruitment that helped to keep the political elite open. Unlike the elites of colonized countries or the French Canadians, Acadian elites were not leading a majority. They were a minority forced to use opportunities afforded by the majority culture. Those who adjusted to the needs and standards of anglophone allies often made enemies among the francophones and have been left out of most analyses of Acadian elites, but they need to be included. Francophone merchants succeeding in an anglophone business environment using anglophone contacts and methods, francophones favouring a secular school system, and francophones forming political alliances unpopular with Acadian priests were not necessarily assimilated and therefore non-Acadian. They continued to speak French and took part in Acadian institutions. This suggests that they thought of themselves as Acadians. If we include these Acadians in the elites, and some reached the standards established here as elite, it is obvious that many did not favour an agrarian lifestyle. Elite and ordinary Acadians were ready to engage in commerce, and participation increased between 1861 and 1881. Moncton Acadians were enthusiastic "city boosters," and even the disadvantaged fishing communities of Gloucester County included some Acadian entrepreneurs.77 Politicians and professionals entered into business, and the Moniteur praised successful businessmen. PierreAmand Landry, MHA and minister of Public Works, spoke with pride of the achievements of Acadian businessmen. There were elite Acadians who talked and wrote as if farming was the only appropriate life for Acadians, but this was rare before the 18708. The best-known examples are two priests who made passionate speeches on this theme at the National Convention of 1881. They were men who found themselves increasingly excluded from government

22

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

decisions and the urban social activities that provided access to power for lay Acadians. There were also Acadians who cheered the speeches. Expressions of agrarian nationalism may have been a psychological defence measure as well as a channel for social and economic ambition.78 However, non-elite members of a group do not necessarily accept conservative values or agrarian myths unless they have valid cultural reasons to do so.79 The reason could be willing acceptance of a golden-age myth as part of an interpretation of history that helps to unify a minority group.80 It could also be a manifestation of the frustrations of a whole minority group whose rising expectations are being only partially fulfilled.81 However, accepting a golden-age myth does not necessarily mean taking active steps to return to the conditions of that age.82 If Acadians chose to cheer the achievements of farmers and previous generations, they had good reason. They recognized that their growing prosperity and power was based on farming.83 Fishing did not provide an alternative, and comparatively few benefited from opportunities in commerce or occupations requiring further education. Those who did benefit often started with an education funded by prosperous farmers. The model that applies to Acadian farmers of the period recognizes that they had improved their situation by their own efforts.84 They used their labour resources, land, and capital to take advantage of changes and to provide for all children. Their strategy included a realistic assessment of improving economic opportunities for educated Acadians in local government, commerce, and teaching, which parents could observe from role-models. This generation knew that the elites could not have developed without decisions made by Acadians who were not necessarily elite themselves. In the period 1861 to 1881 the various Acadian elites were members of a society where rising expectations were shared by many and elites were not far removed from the non-elite in philosophy or opportunity. These elites were not the product of the renaissance of a past European-based culture imposed by external forces, and the ideological or nationalist prise de conscience was only a part of the change that occurred. The development of the Acadian elites was the informed response of the Acadian people to these economic and political opportunities. It established several elites that were open to men of ability from the fertile farming districts. Membership in most of these elites changed frequently, evidenced by both upward and downward mobility. Continuity between generations in the same elite was rare, and there were only limited examples of family connections between members of individual elites. As a result, men of elite status were very limited in their ability to control other Acadians.

2 The Agricultural Elite

The development of all elites in nineteenth-century Acadian society depended on elite farmers' responses to new marketing opportunities. They were part of an identifiable elite group, coming from areas with advantages in agriculture and from families owning more than 40 acres of land. However, elite farmers had not yet become exclusive through wealth or inheritance or socially powerful through links with other elites, and they did not constitute a united elite promoting agrarian ideals. On the contrary, they became less important in public life between 1861 and 1881. However, their rising production levels and response to market needs brought greater prosperity to Acadian farming areas. This prosperity allowed a merchant elite to develop to serve the farmers. It provided cash to pay for the education that produced educated professional and political elites. All these elites contributed to the development of the nationalist movement. Like all elites associated with the mid-nineteenth-century changes in Acadian society, the elite farmers fit some patterns established in other areas. However, regional differences prevented the establishment of a continuing elite based on these patterns. To reach elite levels farmers needed land fertile enough to produce surplus crops and a farm large enough to raise them. However, the parameters for necessary size and fertility depended on access to urban or resourcebased markets where the surplus could be sold.l There was considerable economic mobility and opportunity for entrepreneurial farmers to take advantage of growing markets.

24

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

The size and structure of the family were important to all farmers. If there were too many in the family, they ate most of what they grew; if there were too few, they needed cash to hire labour or equipment.2 Some chores need the strength of a full-grown male, so families with young children were handicapped. Studies in Quebec and anglophone New Brunswick suggest that it took two or three grown men or the equivalent to run a successful farm before the use of internal-combustion engines.3 Elite Acadian farmers often had more than the minimum required labour in the nuclear family, which suggests that some used the farm to provide for its members rather than using family wages to provide cash for the farm.4 There were regional variations depending on the off-farm occupations available. The age of the elite farm's household head also differed from region to region. Jackson Turner Main has found that in colonial Connecticut, labour requirements gave both economic and social power to farmers in later middle age with grown sons.5 However, in the frontier regions of Acadia much younger men could become elite. These differences made an exclusive elite unlikely. Wealth can be a unifying factor, but the Acadian elite farmers were prosperous, not wealthy. Access to cash from other sources could help farmers reach elite production levels and kept the elite more exclusive. Part-time work used to be seen as a distraction from the business of farming and an indication that the farm was not prosperous enough to provide for the family. However, many historians of Maritime agriculture agree that available part-time work was a help, not a hindrance to the development of a farming elite in communities where the soil and climate were not good enough to warrant full-time farming.6 Unfortunately, the census does not give all the information needed to say how much elite Acadian farmers profited from off-farm work, but it seems other occupations were occasionally helpful. Taking part in the timber trade has been particularly controversial.7 Some Acadian elite farmers seem to have found it useful for supplemental income, but few of them recorded large transactions. Nineteenth-century agricultural society reports assume that more equipment made better farmers. However, third-world experience with technology suggests that small farms with plenty of available labour might be successful in their own terms without spending much on changes better suited to larger farms. Elite Acadian farmers show that either model could work. Education can also make an elite exclusive. Historians have argued at length about the ability of illiterate or semi-literate farmers to make sound decisions about crops and markets.8 Nineteenth-century agricultural experts liked to think the advice they were offering in newspapers

25 The Agricultural Elite

or through agricultural societies helped to create elite farmers. But again, historians are not at all sure that such advice was important.9 Many Acadian farmers managed to become elite without learning to read and write. Inheritance, too, can set up an exclusive elite. In Peel County, Ontario, mid-nineteenth-century population pressure allowed the most successful farmers to buy out the less successful and pass on a larger farm intact to the eldest son.10 In Quebec some farmers also enlarged their farms and avoided the tradition of dividing estates. They made contracts with one son who would care for them in old age if they gave him the farm. 1J Other models suggest that elite farmers are likely to be a one-generation phenomenon because they divide the land or take no interest in passing on an intact farm.12 Acadian elite farmers often followed that pattern, and there is remarkably little continuity between families or individuals reaching elite levels in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Relationships between elite farmers and other elites have also varied. Models suggesting a powerful united elite class note that elite farmers, especially those with grown sons, are often men who can pay others to do their work. This gives them time for other associations that may bring them power and status.13 However, the activities of Acadian elite farmers suggest that they had little time for other activities while they concentrated on keeping the farm elite. Others have found that farmers resented the newer urbanized elites that were gaining control over their lives: merchants and lawyers drew them into debt, and priests kept asking for more contributions to the church.14 There is little evidence of professional dominance, but there is some that controversies divided the elites. Agrarian speeches and even jokes in the Moniteur suggest that Acadians were not willing to put up with too much pretension from the urbanized. Attitudes to education also varied. Farmers in Quebec were sometimes hostile to education, while others appreciated schools as a way of acquiring manners and customs that would provide entry into an elite.15 Acadian elite farmers only slowly developed an interest in education. Their responses to changing markets were based on their own perceptions of new opportunities. Their responses started before 1861: the Crimean War, the American Civil War, and the Reciprocity agreements with the United States and the Canadas all provided opportunities for Acadians.16 Farmers who lived in Madawaska could sell provisions to timber camps and get cash by working in winter or selling timber.17 Farmers who had access to boats in the coastal regions could look for new markets by sea.18 Shediac and Moncton farmers could also get cash by working on the

26

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 2 Geographic distribution of elite Acadian farmers, 1861-71 Parish

1861

1871

Bathurst

I

Beresford Botsford Caraquet

Parish change

Soil value

2

-

3-4. scw

2

5

-

4, some 3,5,7. sw

2

11

-

5, some 3. ws

0

2

-

4, much 0. WSF

44

14

-

3, some 4. ws

Dundas

2

10

-

4-3. ws

Inkerman

1

7

-

4, some 3,5,6. sw

Madawaska

4

8

-

4-5, some 2,3. T

Moncton

2

6

-

3-4. WSP

Palmerston

8

0

St-Louis separated

4-3, some 5,7. sw

Richibucto

0

3

-

4-7. SWR

Dorchester

St-Basile

15

7

-

4-3, some 2. WTP

St-Francois

-

4

separated from Madawaska

7, some 4. WTPR

St-Louis

-

11

separated from Palmerston

3-4, some 5,7. sw

Ste-Marie

-

14

separated from Wellington

3-4. s

Saumarez

0

1

-

4—3, some 5. ws

Shippagan

4

3

-

4-7 some 7,0. ws

Weldford

0

1

-

4-3, some 7,0. sw

Wellington

4

8

Ste-Marie separated

4-7, ws

115

151

Total

Key to soil values: 2 - moderate limitations; 3 - moderately severe limitations; 4 - severe limitations; 5 - very severe limitations; 6 - forage only; 7 - no arable or permanent pasture; o - organic soils not classed, usually peat in NB. P: stones; R: shallowness; s: soil limitations, two or more subclasses; T: topography, steepness, or pattern of slopes limits agricultural use; w: excess water. Source: Soil Capability for Agriculture, Moncton, Bathurst, Edmundston, and Amherst sheets, Ottawa: Queen's Printer 1968.

railway or providing food for the workers, and by 1860 they could send produce by rail to Saint John. The result was 115 elite Acadian farmers in 1861.19 As Table 2 shows, soil conditions had to be at least moderately favourable. Dorchester and St-Basile had the largest number of elite farmers and some areas of good soil. (See Map 4 for the location of Acadian census dis-

27

The Agricultural Elite

Table 3 Elite farm acreage by parish, 1861 500+

400+

300+

200+

100+

50+

49-

Bathurst

0

0

0

1

0

0

Beresford

0

1

0

1

0 0

0

0

Botsford

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

Dorchester

0

1

4

20

11

1

Dundas

0

0

0

0

0

0

Inkerman

0

0

0

7 2 1

0

0

0

Madawaska

1

0

0

1

0

0

Moncton

0

1

0

0

0

2

4

1

0

0

St-Basile

2

0

6

1 1

1

Palmerston

0

0

St-Leonard

2

0

0

4

0

0

Shediac

9

3

4

0

0

0

Shippagan

1

0

3

0

0

0

Wellington

2

1

0

2 0 0 6 3 1 0 0

0

1

0

19

11

18

28

21

14

1

Total

tricts.) A large farm was often an asset. All the nineteen Acadian farmers with more than 500 acres of land had elite crop returns. Outside Dorchester almost all elite farmers had farms of more than 200 acres. (See Table 3.) However, a comparison of Tables 3 and 4 shows that fertile soil, favourable climate, and access to a market encouraged farmers with less than 100 acres to reach elite level in three parishes, and there was even one elite farmer with less than 50 acres in Dorchester. The distribution pattern suggests that Acadians increased output in response to demands from urban markets. Dorchester farmers benefited most. This parish had by far the highest number of elite farmers (44). It had the best soil value of any Acadian parish and was in the south of the province, so that it escaped the more extreme winters of the northern areas. Parts of the area were wet and marshy, but Acadian farmers had learnt to cope with these conditions even before the Deportation. Dorchester supplied the railway labourers working on the Saint John to Shediac line and the urban markets of Sackville and Moncton by river. Dorchester census district alone provided 4,845 potential customers. Other Kent-Westmorland parishes that included significant numbers of elite producers were Shediac (17) and Palmerston (8), both in the southeastern coastal

28

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 4 Growth of local markets for Acadian produce, 1861-71 Population 1861 census

1871 census

% French 1871 census

Growth 1861-71

Bathurst

3,771

4,469

40

698

Beresford

2,583

3,275

77

692

Botsford

3,350

3,742

31

392

Caraquet

2,510

3,111

94

601

Dorchester

4,845

5,617

60

772

Dundas

2,750

3,347

84

597

Inkerman

1,233

1,550

Madawaska

1,247

1,816

72 94

569

Moncton

4,171

4,810

15

639

317

Palmerston

1,499

n/a

n/a

n/a

Richibucto

4,036

3,853

40*

-183

St-Basile

1,345

1,669

95

324

St-Francois

578

1,752

90

1,174

St-Leonard

1,384

1,997

92

613

n/a

1,983

85

n/a

St-Louis

n/a

2,087

1,670

2,162

77 77

n/a

Saumarez Shediac

4,585

5,756

69

1,171

Shippagan

1,524

2,015

79

491

Weldford

2,574

3,302

8

728

Wellington

4,018

3,225

74*

793

Total NB pop.

252,043

285,594

% urban, NB

13.1

17.6

Ste-Marie

492

* Area change. Source: Statistics Canada, Census, Demographic and Social Characteristics, vol. 1, pt 1 (1972).

region, with slightly less fertile soil than Dorchester. Shediac farmers could also sell produce to railway contractors, and although they were further from Saint John, they could trade with Halifax and New England by sea. Palmerston, which included the area later known as St-Louis, had a small urban market in Richibucto and sea access through that port to Halifax and New England. The Madawaska area was close behind Shediac in numbers. It included St-Basile, with fifteen elite farmers, St-Leonard with nine, and Madawaska parish,

29

The Agricultural Elite

Table 5 Age of household head on elite Acadian farms, 1861-71

Age

1861

1871

9 11 16

71+

4

66-70

1

61-65

6

56-60

14

51-55

17

46-50

26

41-45

13

36-40

14

31-35

2 5 1

26-30

21-25 16-20 Unknown Total

0 12

21 23 23 20 10 9 6 1 1 1

115

151

soon to be named Edmundston, where there were four. This was an area with harsh winters and uncertain springs, but it had some of the best soil in the province and the timber-camps market. There were even four elite farmers in the Gloucester County fishing village of Shippagan, where there was very little fertile land. Farmers there sold produce to the fishing companies and in other coastal areas. Some family sizes and structures did help a farmer to reach elite production levels, but there were regional variations, suggesting a society that took advantage of opportunities rather than an established social pattern. Table 5 shows that the biggest cluster of elite farmers was pre dictably between fifty and sixty years old, followed by those between forty-five and fifty. However, five elite farmers were less than thirty-one. Three were in Madawaska, where the shifting timber frontier offered more opportunities to younger farmers. Acadian farming was labour intensive, so a large family could be an advantage. (See Table 6.) Again there were regional variations based on market size, land pressure, and available alternative occupations. In nine of the fourteen parishes with elite farmers the average elite farm family provided more labour than the equivalent of three grown men.ao In Dorchester the average was four, including three farms with labour equivalent to more than seven men. Average figures are not quite so high in the rest of Kent and

30

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 6 Family labour on elite Acadian farms, 1861-71 1861 #

Bathurst Beresford Botsford Caraquet Dorchester Dundas Inkerman Madawaska Moncton Palmerston Richibucto St-Basile St-Frangois St-Leonard St-Louis Ste-Marie Saumarez Shediac Shippagan Weldford Wellington

1

2 2 0 44 2 1 4 2 8 0 15 0 9 0 17 4 0 4

1871

Max.

Min.

Av.

#

Max.

Min.

Av.

1.5 3.0 2.5

1.5 2.0 2.5

1.5 2.5 2.5

2 5 11

8.5

3.5

4.5

1.0

6.0 3.3

7.0

1.5

8.5 7.0 3.0 4.0 4.5 6.0 6.5

1.5 4.0 3.0 1.5 3.0 2.5 -

4.0 5.5 3.0 3.1 3.7 4.3 3.4

2 14 10 7 8 6

4.0

0.0

7.0

0.0

11.5

1.5

7.5

1.0 3.0

6.5 4.5 5.5

1.5 0.0 3.5

3.8 4.3 2.4 4.75

3 7 4 2 11 14 1 32 3 1 8

4.2 2.0

5.5

1.5

3.2 4.0 3.5

5.5

0.0

2.7

6.0

2.0

4.2

-

-

-

5.5

2.5

4.0

5.0

1.5

3.0

6.5

1.5

3.6

4.5

4.0

4.25

7.0

2.5

4.3

6.5

1.0

3.0

3.5

3.5

3.5

7.0

1.0

3.75

5.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

5.0

5.0

7.0

1.5

4.5

Note: Men 16-65, 1 unit; women 16-60, men 12-15, or with other occupation, .5 unit. College and convent students omitted. Wife omitted if children under 5 and no alternative caregiver. Adapted from Bitterman, "Middle River," app. iv.

Westmorland. They are substantially lower in Madawaska and Gloucester, where it was easier to provide for children, who could either take up land in areas that were not being farmed or work for the timber companies. There is little evidence that wealth from other sources could have made the farming elite exclusive. Table 7 shows that very few elite farmers reported off-farm jobs for themselves or their families that would have brought in cash. However, these reports do not include men and women who were working in the United States or seasonally employed with the fishing companies or lumber camps.21 Government

31 The Agricultural Elite Table 7 Off-farm occupations of elite farm families, 1861-71

1861

1871

Carding miller

1

0

Carpenter

1

0

Fisherman

2

2

Flour/ grist mill

1

1

Labourer

0

1

Mason

0

1

Merchant

0

2

MHA

1

0

Sawmiller

0

1

Timber merchant

0

1

Employed children

6

11

posts provided extra income to only a few. Six elite farmers made a little money from the fees paid to local justices of the peace, and others no doubt profited from parish office. However, the better-paid posts went to younger educated Acadians.22 The elite farmer in the best position to make contacts that might bring in money was Amand Landry, serving as the first Acadian MHA. However, MHAS could only claim expenses for the few weeks when the Assembly met, and Public Accounts records do not show Landry claiming large amounts for himself or for local activities. Information on other businesses is limited. The 1861 census does not give information on wood harvested. However, none of the elite farmers had a licence from the province that would allow him to cut and sell timber on crown land. At least one elite farmer diversified: Regis Theriault of St-Basile had a sawmill, a grist mill, a carding mill, a tannery, a fulling mill, and a blacksmith's shop by the time he died in i868.23 Income from rents is not recorded in the census, but the 1851 census suggests that farmers would not make much from this. It lists farmers as tenants or proprietors; in Acadian areas there were very few tenants. If this pattern had continued, significant income from rented farm land would have been unlikely; however, a detailed study of probate and mortgage records might change this picture. Being an elite farmer was not enough to make a man rich by provincial standards. The levels of production that made a farmer elite by the standards of Acadians in New Brunswick compare respectably with those of the prosperous anglophone parish of Wakefield in 1871 but

32

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

do not indicate that the elite Acadians were outstandingly well off. The Acadian elite levels for a year were 30 tons of hay, 400 pounds of potatoes, 240 pounds of butter, and 460 bushels total for the three cereals that grew best on that farm. This would have put them in the Wakefield ninetieth percentile for hay and the seventy-fifth for potatoes. However, they were below the Wakefield median in butter and barely above it in cereals.24 The size of many of these families indicates that the elite was not going to be exclusive because of inherited wealth. Even with labourintensive methods it was not likely that a farm really needed labour equivalent to seven men for the whole year. There are few hints that family land was to be passed on intact to one son. Only two of the elite farmers over seventy-one had a resident son or son-in-law who might inherit the farm: the other two were still running their own farms, presumably with non-resident hired labour. Only two of the five elite farmers under thirty-one had resident parents. It is not likely that 1861 elite farmers were exclusive because of a better-than-average education that gave them access to information on farming. There is no information on literacy in the 1861 census, and the Moniteur did not begin to publish until 1867, so we cannot estimate their access to written information. There were agricultural societies centred on several of the areas with elite Acadian farmers, including Dorchester, Shediac, St-Leonard, and St-Basile. Farmers may have taken advantage of these. However, the Victoria County agricultural society, serving St-Basile, was the only one with Acadians on the executive. Information on how to make farming pay was probably passed on by less official methods than through agricultural societies. The choice of crops in all parishes reflected an informed response to the demand of markets that were not too distant. (See Table 8.) Potatoes were the crop most likely to reach elite production level. They were an intelligent choice as they grew well in marginal areas and were tough enough to withstand rail or sea transport to more distant markets.25 Continuing high levels of butter and hay production suggest that these items were useful for local exchange. Most elite farmers did not hold office in organizations that might have made them part of an elite network. (See Table 9.) Status was not necessarily linked to comparative wealth because ordinary farmers held more offices than the elite. In local government, six of the fifteen Acadian justices of the peace appointed by 1861 were elite farmers, but seven were ordinary farmers. At the provincial level Amand Landry MHA seems to prove that elite farmers had a better chance to succeed than others. None of the five ordinary farmers who ran for office was

33 The Agricultural Elite Table 8 Crops providing elite standing, by parish, 1861-71

1861

P

B

C

Bathurst

I

0

1

Beresford

2 0 0 25 2 0 4

1

2

Botsford Caraquet Dorchester Dundas Inkerman Madawaska Moncton Palmerston Richibucto St-Basile St-Francois St-Leonard St-Louis Ste-Marie Saumarez Shediac Shippagan Weldford Wellington Total

1871 #

B

C

P

H

#

0

1

0

2

2 5 10 2 12 9 7 4 5 0 3 7

1

0

2 5 11

H

2

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

26

42

23

44

2 5 7 1 7

1

2

0

2

4

8

0

1

1

1

7

0

4

1

3

4

6

6

0

1

3

4

3

2

0

8

3

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

8

1

11

15

2

6

0

0

0

0

3

4

7

0

9

1

2

0

-

-

9

5

-

3

13

0

7 0

0

0

0

13

16

5

17

6

26

2 0 1

0

4

2

4

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

4

4

0

4

4

80

66

85

58

115

78

2 8 0 13 0 9 0 11

-

1 5 0 3

1 2 1 13 1 0 6 4 0 1 4

2 14 10 7 8 6 0 3 7 4

4

5

2 1 9 12 1 31 1 1 8

2 0 0

32 3 1 8

89

136

50

151

2 0 0 1

7

2 11 14 1

B = Butter c = Cereal p = Potatoes H = Hay # = Elite farmers

elected. However, there is no evidence that Landry had an exceptionally prosperous farm before he was elected in 1846. As far as we know, he was one of the Acadians without economic advantages who made the best of opportunities as they became available. Militia commissions were another way to gain status and make useful connections, but, like local government office, the distribution of commissions demonstrates mobility within Acadian society, not the

34

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 9 Off-farm status of elite farmers, 1861—71 1861 elite

1871 elite

College-ed. selves

0

0

College-ed. sibs

2

3

census year

5

16

pre-census year

8

5*

15*

58*

45 ?

33

Militia office

6

4

JP census year

6

5

JP by 1881

9

15

MC by 1881

0

9

Political candidate to census

1

0

Political candidate by 1881

3

1

Convention delegate 1881

4

10

1

9

30

2

1

4

3-5

1

2

Children over sixteen in school:

up to 1881 Children not in school Household head literate

48

Other associations**:

* Includes known college students whose age at time of attendance is not known. ** Includes agricultural societies.

dominion of the elite farmers. Only six out of fifty-one Acadian militia officers considered active in 1861 were elite farmers.26 The only other documented association providing Acadians with status through office was the agricultural society in St-Basile, which had two Acadian farmers on the executive, but neither was elite in 1861. Kinship connections between elite farmers and other elite Acadians were sparse. The elite farmers lived in areas that provided for an educated elite, but they were not closely linked to it. The majority of the thirty-seven students over sixteen in 1861 came from parishes with many elite farmers. St-Basile and Dorchester also supported the only French secondary schools in New Brunswick, and prosperous farming parishes attracted well-qualified teachers. However, only five students were from elite farm families, and forty-five of the elite farmers were not even sending their six- to sixteen-year-olds to school. The only con-

35 The Agricultural Elite

nection with other elites was one Acadian priest whose brother was an elite farmer. Changes between 1861 and 1871 made it harder for elite farmers to form a united interest group as regional interests diverged. The southeastern coastal-area Acadians were disappointed that the Intercolonial Line did not pass nearer to their area, although it opened some interior areas for settlement. Madawaska farmers had to wait until 1878 before the road and river links with Fredericton were supplemented by a railway. There were also downturns: the Reciprocity treaty with the United States ended in 1866; the depression of the early 18705 hurt some Acadian traders; and the fire in Shediac and subsequent removal of the Intercolonial Railway shops to Moncton in 1872 were serious setbacks for businesses there.27 However, the number of elite farmers continued to grow. By 1871 there were 151 elite farmers in twenty parishes. The distribution again reflects the importance of soil fertility. (See Table 2.) Access to markets that had expanded through population growth, urbanization, and railways also encouraged farmers from less fertile areas to increase their crop production to elite levels. The increase was not just the result of a good harvest: reports on crop conditions for both 1861 and 1871 in the JHA record minor problems and no exceptional returns.28 The rising number of elite farmers still reflects a continued informed response to market access by Acadians who rarely had any other claim to elite status. The geographic distribution of elite farmers suggests mobility and opportunity rather than an established elite. Demand had shifted in Madawaska as the timber trade moved west. St-Basile had dropped to seven elite farmers and St-Leonard to two. The region was still a prosperous farming area: there were now more elite farmers in Madawaska census district (8) and St-Francois (4). This rise reflects the ten-year population growth of 569 more residents in Madawaska and a remarkable 1,174 more in St-Francois, the fastest-growing Acadian parish of the decade. In the south the number of Shediac elite farmers rose to 32 and the population increased by 1,171, second only to St-Frangois in population growth. In 1871 Shediac was still a busy port and the railway headquarters for the region, with a rail link almost completed to Halifax. There were areas that had an increasing local market but failed to show any marked increase in the number of elite farmers. In some cases this seems to have been because anglophones were in a better position to benefit from the changes, which reinforces the idea that unity among Acadian elites was difficult because every area had regional as well as Acadian interests, and a local anglophone population

36

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

to consider. In Bathurst, for example, only 40 per cent of the population were Acadian, and the major landowners were anglophone. The number of elite Acadian farmers there only increased from one to two. Nearby Beresford (Petit Rocher) had a 77 per cent Acadian population and a more established Acadian farming community, so the number of elite farmers there increased from two to five. Saumarez (Tracadie) was also 77 per cent Acadian, but it was dominated by powerful anglophone landowners, and only one Acadian rose to elite farmer status. As these changes indicate, growth in the number of elite farmers did not strengthen an existing Acadian elite. Only one 1871 elite farmer kept his father's 1861 elite farm, and only five of the nine elite farmers over seventy were nominally heading farms run by a married son or son-in-law who might expect to inherit.29 There was limited individual continuity: only twenty-two of the elite farmers of 1861 were still elite in 1871. Three were over seventy, and the rest had been younger members of the 1861 elite who were now in their prime years as farmers. The majority of this continuing elite were in the south, particularly in Dorchester (5) and Shediac (8). This supports the conclusion that young farmers there still had fewer opportunities to become elite than in less urbanized areas. There are only very limited indications that the elite developed because the owners of large Acadian farms bought out small Acadian farms. The number of elite farmers owning more than 500 acres only rose from 19 to 23. As Table 10 shows, improving markets encouraged farmers with less land to be more productive. The middle range of elite farms, from 100 to 399 acres, showed the largest increase in numbers as it rose from 61 in 1861 to no in 1871. The number of small farms reaching elite level did drop from 15 to 7, so some smaller farms may have been sold. It appears that in Dorchester some Acadian farmers decided to provide for their families by selling the land to anglophones: 1,793 acres of improved land had gone from Acadian farm ownership between censuses, and the number of elite farmers sank from 44 to 14. The railway had reached the area in 1869 and the local market was growing, but Acadians had not taken advantage of these opportunities by increasing production. The problem appears to have been a shortage of good agricultural land in Acadian hands. Since 1861 the average Acadian farm size in this district had declined from 89 acres to 50. The average elite farm was also smaller, and the number of elite farms in the 5i-igg-acre range had dropped more than in any other range.30 Acadians still provided land for their children, and the number of

37 The Agricultural Elite Table 10 Elite farm acreage by parish, 1871

Bathurst Beresford Botsford Caraquet Dorchester Dundas Inkerman Madawaska Moncton Richibucto St-Basile St-Frangois St-Leonard St-Louis Ste-Marie Saumarez Shediac Shippagan Weldford Wellington Total

50+

49-

500+

400+

300+

200+

0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1

0

0 1

0

1

I

0

0

3

0

0

2 1 3 1

5

3

1

0

0

1

0

0

3

5

3

0

3

6

0

0

0 1 0

1

2

1

0

5

1

0

0

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0 5 2 0 1 2 0 7 1 1 0 21

0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0

1 0 2 0 1 3 1 0 1 11

100+

4

2

0

0

7 0 0

4 0

2 2 1 0 0 2 6 0 11 0 0

2

3

2

0

0

24

38

48

7

0

0 0 0

1 1

1 1 1 1 4

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Acadian farms had increased from 331 to 489. The fears of the priests who advocated colonization rather than subdivision and deplored land sales to English-speaking New Brunswickers were justified.31 Some Dorchester farms were becoming too small to produce elite crops. The family structure of elite farmers in 1871 was more varied than it had been in 1861, again suggesting mobility rather than a static hierarchy. The age-range of household heads was wider. (See Table 5.) The majority were still in mid-life, but there were now eight under thirty and one under twenty. Younger farmers reached elite status in areas with rapid population growth, such as the new census divisions of St-Louis, where the average age of elite farmers was 45.25 years, Ste-Marie (42.3 years), and St-Francois (44.5 years). The areas with the highest average age were Dorchester (55.7), where there was

3 8 Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

little land to spare for the young, and the fishing areas of Shippagan (64.3), Caraquet (56.5), and Inkerman (55.7). Only the established could afford the luxury of farming in those areas. The resident labour-resource statistics show that in many parishes elite Acadian farms were becoming even more labour-intensive. (See Table 6.) In 1861 64.2 per cent of parishes with elite farmers had an average labour-force equivalent to more than three men. In 1871 this had risen to 76.2 per cent. All parishes except Madawaska, Caraquet, and St-Basile averaged above two men's labour, and ten districts averaged above four. Averages remained highest in the southern districts, presumably because markets there made it possible to support larger families and competition for new land was greater. The areas with comparatively low labour averages provided other jobs or land nearby. The population in Madawaska was increasing and provided some service jobs for local farmers' children, while the forest industry provided others. Caraquet was still a major fishing port, and St-Basile was losing its youth to newer settlements such as St-Hilaire and St-Francois. Dorchester's elite producers also had less available labour than in 1861 (3.2 average compared with 4.0). This reflects the growing attraction of urbanized occupations, probably including those in the mill-towns of New England.32 There was still not much sign of an elite group of farmers drawn to each other or to other elites by wealth. (See Tables 7 and 9.) One elite merchant had just bought a farm that put him in the elite class.33 Government posts still brought in some extra money. Five elite farmers were justices of the peace, and two others were roads supervisors, able to collect 5 per cent of the money spent on a small number of local roads.34 Table 7 shows that off-farm income was increasingly useful, but not crucial. Commerce and education were giving elite farm families access to a wider range of additional occupations. Two of the farmers and one of the sons were now general merchants; one farmer was also a timber merchant, and two sons were merchant clerks. Five children were teachers. Like the general merchants, they were in the southern counties, where urbanization was proceeding more rapidly. The other eight employed farmers and three employed children were in traditional rural occupations.35 Considerable paid employment was probably not listed. Timber statistics became available in the 1871 census, and Table 11 shows that twenty-nine elite farmers were cutting logs in 1871; some were cutting considerable quantities. However, the geographic distribution suggests that most of these elite farmers were responding to local demand from the railway or urban areas rather than long-term demand from timber firms. Elite farmers were not making much

39 The Agricultural Elite Table 11 Timber production of elite Acadian farmers, 1871 Logs cut by elite Acadian farmers

Logs Farmers

1000+ 800-999 600-799 400-599 200-399 100-199 50-99 1

2

1

1

4

6

2

1-50 12

Logs cut by elite Acadian farmers, by parish

Shediac

3,178

St-Louis

1,580

Moncton

727

Botsford

575

Dundas

111

St-Frangois

80

Dorchester

30

Beresford

29

Richibucto

10

money cutting logs in the Madawaska area. The census shows that younger farmers clearing new land were cutting more logs than the elite. In the colonization regions around St-Louis, elite farmers were more involved. They were also producing squared timber. However, the most brisk market seems to have been in the districts around Shediac. Some money was going into the purchase of equipment. Table 12 shows that, in spite of high resident labour figures, elite Acadian farmers were still above parish average, including non-Acadian figures, in their use of machinery. Ploughs were the most common equipment listed in the 1871 census. Parish averages were between 1.6 and 0.61 ploughs per farmer, and elite Acadian farmers averaged between 4.57 and 1.6. There were regional variations. Districts with few ploughs (fewer than two per elite farmer) had high resident labour numbers (the equivalent of three or more men). The four districts that had suffered a net loss in elite farmers since 1861, including Dorchester, also had two or fewer ploughs per elite producer. However, the general formula for success seems to have been lots of labour and lots of ploughs. The largest increases in the number of elite farmers had taken place in Shediac and Botsford. Both had more than three ploughs per farm and around four men's labour (Botsford, 4.2; Shediac 3.75). Elite farmers were still not likely to be exclusive because literacy had helped them to learn better methods. Only seventy-four could

40

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 12 Ploughs owned by elite farmers and average number of ploughs per farm, by parish, 1871 Parish

Elite average

Parish average

Bathurst Beresford

2.0

0.40

2.0

0.90

Botsford Caraquet

3.3

1.34

2.0

1.15

Dorchester

1.92

0.73

Dundas Inkerman

1.60

1.24

4.57

2.00

Madawaska

3.57

0.87

Moncton

2.16

0.61

Richibucto

1.6

1.08

St-Basile

1.8

0.94

St-Frangois St-Leonard

4.25

1.01

2.0

1.6

St-Louis

1.60

0.72

Ste-Marie Saumarez Shippagan Weldford Wellington

1.35

0.53

2.0

0.61

2.0

0.53

2.0

0.82 1.61

3.12

read in 1871, and only forty-eight could read and write. In the southern parishes 50 per cent of elite farmers could read, but in Madawaska, where tradition had served farmers well for generations, the figure was only 28 per cent. In Gloucester, where reaching an elite standard was harder because of problems with soil and climate, the level of literacy was slightly higher, at 61 per cent. Only twenty-six elite farmers in the whole of New Brunswick subscribed to the Moniteur. Areas with elite farmers usually had agricultural societies, and more Acadians were involved in them by 1871. The Victoria County society in the St-Basile area still had some Acadian officers. Since 1861 Aca dians had also become officers in St-Leonard (1864) and in the new societies in Caraquet (1864), St-Louis (1869), and St-Hilaire de Madawaska (1870). These societies encouraged the use of lime and manure and the importation of better-quality seed, and could have helped

41 The Agricultural Elite

to improve local crop yields. However, the areas where agricultural societies were predominantly Acadian were among the lowest in the average number of ploughs per elite producer. Agricultural societies alone did not encourage mechanization, and elite farmers were not necessarily active in the agricultural societies. Only 19 of the 151 elite farmers in New Brunswick were listed as officers or prize-winners.36 The societies in Dorchester and Shediac were apparently anglophone, and when a society was founded in Ste-Marie (1875) in which Acadians did take part, the priests who ran the society complained that many of the best farmers did not join.37 However, the change in crop patterns among elite farmers shows that they were adapting production to markets. (See Table 8.) The major increase was in potato production, followed by cereal crops, with a decline in production of butter and hay. This was not a reflection of the season, as the Board of Agriculture declared that 1871 had been a poor year for most potato harvests and only a fair year in Kent and Victoria.38 By 1880 Acadians were exporting potatoes by sea from Shediac to the United States.39 The main areas to benefit from this change were those with access to bulk transportation either by rail, like Shediac and Botsford, or by water, like St-Louis and Ste-Marie. Concentrating on markets and the intensified demands of commercial farming apparently left little time for developing a place in a wide elite network. As Table 9 shows, elite farmers did take part in the general increase of Acadian institutional activity. However, by 1871 elite farmers were a smaller percentage of Acadian office-holders than they had been in 1861. Younger, educated Acadians were taking more of these positions. In local government there were fifty-five Acadian justices of the peace by 1871, but only five were elite farmers. In the militia, of twenty-six Acadian officers commissioned since 1861, only four were elite farmers. In provincial and federal politics, of eighteen Acadians who had run for office, only one was an elite farmer. Links between elite farmers and the educated elite were limited. Parishes with several elite farmers still attracted good teachers, and the parish as a whole could then send more students for further education. More elite farmers were educating their school-age children: the total was 78.2 per cent, compared with 60.9 per cent in 1861. However, many were only interested in elementary education. Only sixteen elite farmers kept their children in school after they were sixteen. Apparently none of the elite farmers had attended a college himself. We get another glimpse of mobility and changing roles when we look at the activities of those who had been elite farmers but were no

42

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 13 Activities of the elite farmers of 1871 by 1881 Agricultural society executive

5

Temperance society executive

4

Fund-raisers for the colleges

2

Delegates to political conventions

13

Patronage posts

12

General merchants

2

Timber merchants Railway promoters

1 6

Justices of the peace

15

longer. In 1871 most of the surviving 1861 elite were ordinary farmers. However, this gave a few of them more time for other activities such as agricultural societies, local politics, temperance societies, and railway development.40 The only way to examine the development of the farming elite in 1881 is to see what happened to the elite farmers of 1871. As Table 13 shows, they continued to share in the growth of Acadian institutions. However, they did not often take a leading role. In the agricultural societies, executive members were usually not elite farmers. They were politicians, priests, local dignitaries such as justices of the peace and municipal councillors, and merchants, including three of the commercial elite. The secretaries of the societies were usually younger educated members of the community, including teachers and former students at St-Joseph. The railway promoters were involved at a local level only as proposed directors of the Kent and Caraquet railways.41 Some children of elite farmers had also become members of other elites. By 1881 four had run for political office and three were elected; three became doctors, lawyers, or senior civil servants, and seven became priests. Their success reflects the general change in Acadian society. Parishes with high numbers of elite farmers in 1871 continued to attract qualified teachers in 1881 and to produce higher-than-average numbers of students over sixteen. After the Schools Act of 1871 they were the parishes providing most support for the colleges and convent schools, and they eventually produced the church and professional elites. These were also the parishes that produced the most successful merchants, and their prosperity was reflected in the increased confidence of Acadians in politics. However, ordinary Acadians in prosperous and even less prosperous farming areas continued to produce the

43 The Agricultural Elite

majority of students over sixteen, merchants, politicians, professionals, and priests. There are some indications that the very small group of farmers who were elite in both census years might have been more closely allied with other elites than the rest of the elite farmers. Five of the 1871 elite appointed to be justices of the peace had also been elite farmers in 1861. This continuing elite also took more interest in education than those who were elite in only one census year. In 1881 fifty-eight children of elite farmers were either students over sixteen or at feepaying colleges or convent schools. Twenty-one were children of the continuing elite. When delegates were chosen by each Acadian parish for the National Convention of 1881, the five elite farmers included three of the continuing elite. However, the numbers of actual elite farmers participating in this change in Acadian society should not be overemphasised. By 1881 it is possible to identify the parents of 340 Acadian students over sixteen or at fee-paying schools. Only 17 per cent were children of elite farmers. Local government had also changed, and elite farmers had lost power in the process. Municipal councillors had replaced the justices in all but their function as a local law court by 1877.42 By 1881 sixty Acadian municipal councillors had been elected, but only nine had been elite farmers. Their status as militia officers also declined. After 1867 the militia became a federal responsibility, with officer training centred in Fredericton, and no further Acadian commissions were reported up to 1882.43 Elite farmers did not hold special status because of a uniting agrarian ideology. Many elite farmers moved off the land. Farming interests were important to Acadians, but not necessarily dominant. The Moniteur gave agricultural advice and reported agricultural shows thoroughly. Most of the paper's subscribers were undoubtedly farmers, even though elite farmers were not well represented. There were articles and reports of speeches that stressed the value of the rural lifestyle for Acadians as a way of maintaining religious and family values. The colonization movement that sought to stem immigration by founding new settlements in uncleared areas was based on these values, and one elite farmer was actively involved in promoting it. The priests were particularly active in promoting the lifestyle and the movement. They disparaged urban living and immigration for springing from a love of luxury and threatening to lead to drink and immorality. There was also an implicit approval of farming as opposed to fishing in the advice against running into debt with merchants or fishing companies.44 The National Convention of 1881 included speeches praising the simple rural lifestyle of the Acadians, and again these were made by priests.

44

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

However, the Moniteur needed the income it derived from commercial advertising: it welcomed new enterprises and praised commercial success. The priests did often practise what they preached and maintained farms that produced prize-winning exhibits at the agricultural shows, but while the educated, merchant, professional, and political elites often kept a small farm, none put the profits of elite status entirely into a return to farming.45 The speeches of politicians, the editorials of the Moniteur, and the agenda of the 1881 convention all seem more concerned with the need to obtain an education and prove what Acadians could do in a wider world than with agrarian ideals. The elite producers of 1861 and 1871 were farmers who provided the economic basis for the development of other Acadian elites between 1861 and 1871. They took advantage of changing markets and used family resources to improve their output. However, they did not establish an exclusive or continuing elite. Although former elite farmers continued to be active in other Acadian associations, they did not dominate the associations or the ideology of other elites. They were far from being wholly integrated into one combined Acadian elite.

3 The Commercial Elite

The development of a commercial elite was closely related to that of the agricultural elite and an important factor in the growth of the educated, professional, and nationalist elites. English-speaking merchants, artisans, and contractors no doubt could have provided the necessary services of middlemen between producers and consumers - to a large extent, they probably did. However, the growth of an Acadian occupational class to fill this role was essential if Acadians were ever to approach prise de conscience as an independent community. There are few studies of the development of a commercial elite from among the operaters of small businesses, too few to suggest patterns.1 Historians have concentrated on bigger business elites. Even the most successful Acadians ran very small businesses at this time. The American credit agency R.G. Dun assessed several Acadian businesses between 1859 and 1880 and did not value any of them at more than $10,000.2 Nicolas Landry found that the richest Acadians in the northeast of New Brunswick had less than $3,000 capital, while English-speaking entrepreneurs ranged from the Robin Company, with $1 million assets and unlimited credit, down to the same level as the most underfunded Acadians.3 The history of underdevelopment in Quebec and the Maritimes is the obvious place to look for comparisons, but even here the chief concern of analysts has been reasons for failure.4 Until recently nationalist and clerical historians in Quebec and Acadia have frowned on commercial success. Those who prospered were considered traitors because they adopted the standards of the richer anglophone Protestants. Raymond Mailhot, for example, implies that a French merchant

46

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

should not have collected debts and charged interest in the way of Protestant English merchants and rejects the success of Martin Hache in Caraquet as participation in an alien system.5 Historians have preferred to concentrate on the frequent failures of small businesses, using them to illustrate the themes of exploitation or underdevelopment. However, those who have analysed Quebec and Maritime success stories have found some patterns, and common sense suggests others. The same factors that develop elite farmers can help to develop elite businessmen to serve them. These are access to a fertile farming area and communications with a market based on a frontier resource industry or urbanized areas. Personal contacts were also vital for nineteenthcentury commerce, and common origin or language could be used to commercial advantage.6 French Canadian merchants often knew from personal experience what clients in farming and lumbering areas wanted. When they moved to bigger centres, some kept in touch with agents and trustworthy credit lines in the countryside.7 Family contacts and business based on shared country of origin or religion or language could also be useful. As David Sutherland, D.S. Macmillan, and T.W. Acheson have noted, these contacts are especially valuable for a rising middle class in favourable economic circumstances.8 Previous studies suggest that the commercial elite may have had problems uniting with the educated elite. Historians have often assumed that clerical praise of rural lifestyles hindered commercial development and fostered an existing dislike and distrust of business among farmers and professionals.9 However, closer analysis has revealed significant local variations in the attitudes of priests and people. Priests were less likely to be hostile in smaller communities where they knew the businessmen and thought they could exercise some control over them.10 Farmers were most likely to distrust a distant and wellestablished business class. The longer the business lasted, the more likely it was to accumulate the mortgages of others and build up control through debt. J1 Where the business class was new and represented opportunities for an economically mobile population, there was little hostility.12 The professional classes were in no position to look down on business in mid-nineteenth-century Acadia or Quebec. As the R.G. Dun Agency credit ratings remind us, doctors were ranked along with the men and women who ran corner stores, and frequently came lower on the scale. Lawyers escaped this ranking but seem to have had considerable problems collecting their debts. For a disadvantaged group there were often more advantages in co-operation among professionals, politicians, and merchants than in conflict. Contracts and patronage posts provided useful links between business and politicians.13 In

47 The Commercial Elite Table 14 Acadian commercial elite by year, R.G. Dun rating and evaluation, 1864, 1871,and 1880

Name

Rating

Value (to max. in $ thousands)

1864 Fidele Poirier

2

not given

1871 Alphee Babin

3.5

2

John Bernier

3

5

Odos Bernier

3.5

2

Amos & Clement Bourque

3.5

5

Patrick Bourque

3

Jude Goguen

3.5

John Godere

3.5

Hilarion Hache

3.5

Joseph Hache

3.5

Andre Laforest

3

Honore Landry

3.5

Israel Landry

3.5

Hilaire Pelletier

3.5

Charles Roy

3.5

Levite Theriault

3.5

Jean-C. Vautour

3

2 2 5 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 10 5

1880 Pierre. S. Allain

3.5

Fred. Arsenault

3.5

Alphee Babin*

3

John Bernier*

3.5

Clement Bourque*

3.5

Fred. Comeau

3

Dr D'Olloqui

3

Damien Gallant

3.5

Dr Fidele Gaudet

3.5

John Godere*

3.5

Hilarion Hache*

3

Andre Laforest*

3

Joseph Lecase

3.5

2 2 10 2 2 5 2 2 1 5 5 5 2

48

Elites in Acadian New Brunswick

Table 14 (Cont'd) Acadian commercial elite by year, R.G. Dun rating and evaluation, 1864, 1871,and 1880

Name

Rating

Value (to max. in $ thousands)

Daniel-D. Landry

3.5

1

Israel Landry*

3.5

5

Ubalde Landry

3.5

2

Olivier-J. Leblanc

3

2

Francois Maillet

3.5

2

Alexandre Martin

3.5

2

Olivier Melanson & Andre Poirier

3.5

Mathias Nadeau

3

10

Fidele Poirier*

2.5

10

Beloni Richard

3.5

1

Dominic Richard

3.5

1

Hippolyte Robichaud Prudent Robichaud

3

5

3.5

2

2

* Elite in more than one year. Key: 2 Good, 3 Fair.

the mid-nineteenth century the boom in church-building even provided priests with some patronage power.14 The Acadian commercial elite followed some of the patterns predicted by these studies and the development of the farming elite. They took advantage of the same opportunities: a fertile hinterland, growing markets, urbanization, and transport improvements. (See Tables 4, 14, and 15.) Individual ability to respond to market needs was important. Connections helped some to get a start but helped more to build a business. A high percentage of francophones in the marketing area was helpful. Acadians lacked the capital to compete with successful anglophone merchants and became increasingly aware that the francophone market was important to them. Some developed networks among Acadians, including associations and kinship links. The hostility to commerce expressed by some priests and some Moniteur articles should not be overestimated. Acadian businessmen were still at the stage of development where they could remain close to the community. Hostility did increase with urbanization. However, it was always expressed in the context of reaction to American or English-speaking organizations. Usually it appeared in items taken from the Quebec

49 The Commercial Elite Table 15 Commercial elite, markets and communications, 1864-80 Name

Parish

Pop.

Communications

Fidele Poirier

Shediac

4,585

RR, S

Alphee Babin

Moncton

4,810

RR, R

John Bernier

St-Basile

1,169

R R

Odos Bernier

Grand Falls

1,849

Amos & Clement Bourque

Cape Bald

1,000-

S

P. Bourque

Rexton

600

S

Jude Goguen

Cocagne

1,000-

S

John Godere

Moncton

4,810

RR, R

Hilarion Hache

Bathurst

4,469

S

Joseph Hache

Bathurst

4,469

S

Andre Laforest

Fredericton

6,006

R

Honore Landry

Kouchibougouac

1,000-

S

Israel Landry

Saint John

H. Pelletier

Edmundston

1,816

Charles Roy

Petit Rocher

1,000-

S

L. Theriault

St-Basile

1,669

R

J.-C. Vautour

Richibucto

3,853

S

P.-S. Allain

Buctouche

3,519

S

F. Arsenault

Grand Falls

1,534

R

40,106

RR, S , R R

Alphee Babin

Moncton

9,611

RR, R

John Bernier

St-Basile

1,350

R

C. Bourque

Buctouche

3,519

R

Fred. Comeau

Petit Rocher

3,636

RR

Dr D'Olloqui

Rexton

1,726

S

Damien Gallant

Buctouche

3,519

S

Dr F.Gaudet

Dorchester

6,582

RR

John Godere

Moncton

9,611

RR, R

H. Hache

Bathurst

4,806

RR, S

A. Laforest

Fredericton Campbellton

6,218 ?

R

Joseph Lecase D.-D. Landry

Buctouche

1,519

S

Israel Landry

Saint John

45,873

Ubalde Landry

Grand Anse

1,000-

S

O.-J. LeBlanc

Buctouche

3,519

S

F. Maillet

Rexton

4,079

S

RR, S

RR, R, S

5° Elites in Acadian New Brunswick Table 15 (Cont'd) Commercial elite, markets and communications, 1864—80 Name

Parish

A. Martin

Neguac

1,000-

Olivier Melanson & A. Poirier

Shediac

6,227

RR, S

M. Nadeau F. Poirier

St-Francois

1,600

R

Shediac

6,227

RR, S

B. Richard

St-Louis

2,135

R

D. Richard

Shediac

6,227

RR, S

H. Robichaud

Shediac

6,227

RR, S

P. Robichaud

Aboujagane

6,227

S

Pop.

Communications

s

Key: RR = Rail, s = Sea, R = River.

press and the correspondence columns, where the fluency of the writer would suggest that the pseudonym hid a clerical or professional writer who might also have been of Quebec origin. This must still have made networking through Acadian associations more difficult. Some of the commercial elite took no interest in francophone or Catholic organizations, even though they continued to operate in French and served a predominantly francophone region. At the same time, there was considerable enthusiasm for the commercial achievements of Acadians and non-Acadians as signs of progress. This enthusiasm increased over the two decades studied here and was fuelled by French Canadians who came to seek their fortunes in New Brunswick. The Moniteur itself was a commercial enterprise run by French Canadians and relying on advertisements from other commercial enterprises for much of its revenue. It welcomed the Acadian commercial elite as part of the national revival. Some priests also saw Acadians in commerce as potential allies. Big business was anglophone or based on the English Channel island of Jersey and frequently Protestant; smaller Acadian businesses were a welcome alternative source of parish revenue and social support. Many Acadians were eager to improve their economic situation and gain more political power in an environment dominated by anglophones, so there was no room for disdaining commerce. Thus, elite businessmen were a vital part of the development of the nineteenth-century Acadian self-image. The commercial elite became more numerous and more prosperous between 1864 and 1880, but there were few signs that an exclusive or united elite was developing. Businesses did not stay elite for long, and unconnected able entrepreneurs rose to elite level through per-

51 The Commercial Elite

sonal ability. The southeastern commercial elite, which supported Pierre-Amand Landry and the federal Conservative Party, showed signs of becoming more exclusive as links with the colleges were established and business families intermarried. However, the provincial commercial elite was increasingly divided: the political realities of Kent, Madawaska, and Gloucester required merchants there to take sides that often pitted them against other merchants and against the southeastern Conservative Acadians. The commercial elite was far from united, either within itself or as part of a monolithic Acadian power elite. We can examine the commercial elite and their careers and connections in considerable detail. The R.G. Dun Mercantile Agency collected written reports on businesses in various North American areas from local sources every year after 1841. The reports of the local agents were kept, and yearly summaries were published. These estimated the capital behind a business and the character of those running it. The agency then provided a rating to those who might be considering extending credit to the business. The local reporters were originally young merchants, bankers, or lawyers who got little or no pay for their efforts, but by 1870 the firm employed a network of fulltime agents, covering most major cities and answering requests for information by conducting direct interviews with businessmen and their peers.15 Coverage was obviously limited by the information they could get, particularly during the 186os. However, there is no evidence that the agents had a bias against any ethnic group, so those receiving a credit rating of "Fair" or above represented successful Acadian businessmen. The early volumes of the annual R.G. Dun summaries show that Acadians were not considered good credit risks until 1864. Comments on less successful Acadian businessmen in 1859 by agents in Richibucto, Woodstock, and Saint John are sympathetic, but they suggest their subjects were poor credit risks.16 The first Acadian with a rating of "Fair" or above was Fidele Poirier of Shediac.1 l6o > 161, 163, 164; and farming, 31, 36, 189; hostility towards, 60, 118; patronage of Acadians, 125, 136, 158, 163; recruitment of Acadians by, 53, 141-2, 145, 148, 149, iS1-*, 155. 164; rejected at political convention, 163; see also Costigan.John; McManus, Francis; Rice, Francis; Young, Robert Babin, Alphee: businessman, 53, 56; and church, 117; elite farmer's son, 57; and Moniteur, 60, 176; origins, 135; wealth, 57 Babin, Prudent: in 1874 election, 163; magician, 181; opposes Levite Theriault, 164

Babineau, Rev. FrangoisXavier: leaves parish to teach, 118; origins, 1067; and students over sixteen, 71, 82 Babineau, Rev. Joseph-Auguste: and colonization, 108; education, 108; family, 109, no; influence of Rev. Joseph Pelletier, 114; and Moniteur, 176; in Newcastle, 110; origins 107 Babineau, Sylvain, political candidate, 147 Bathurst: anglophone competition in, 36; convent, 86; grammar school, 66, 68, 91; students over sixteen, 91; subscriptions to Moniteur, 174; temperance society, 190 Belcourt, Rev. Georges: colonization, 108; in Shediac, 87; supports Moniteur, 174 Belliveau, Alphee, professor: family 115, 137; and French Preparatory

254 Index Department, 86, 138-9;

Schools Act, no, 161; Caraquet: agricultural sociteacher 82; and Robert ety, 40; attitude to educaYoung, 157 Belliveau, Rev. Fidele: famtion, 69,71;convent ily origins, 115; and land Bosse, Honore, opposes school, 86, 110, 115; John Costigan, 164 elite farmers, 38; farm lashortage, 114; in Moncton, 115, 116; in St Mar- Botsford: elite farmers and bour, 38; fish catches in ploughs in, 39; Patrice 1871, 14; pilgrimages, garet's, 115 188; railway company, Hebert political candiBelliveau, Rev. Philippe: to date from, 156; qualiJesuits, 116; and land 42, 192; subscriptions to Moniteur in, 174, 176, fied teachers in, 91 shortage, 114; on value 180; and Young family, of education, 181 Boudreau, Jerome: at 156; see also Blanchard, Bathurst grammar Beresford (Petit Rocher): school, 68; in Beresbusinessmen in, 53, 57; Theotime; Hache, Juste Catholic church: and Acaford, 82, 91; Class i elite farmers in, 36; influteaching licence, 76; ence of Young family, 59; dian nationalism, 11, 16, demonstration class, 104, 116; and angloand National Conven192; in Restigouche, 85, phones, 188; and association, 196; percentage of tions, 181, 188; and 160; and Schools Act, Acadians in, 36; Pere Ebusiness, 55, 57; church 160; and students over A. Robert, 175; qualified sixteen, 85 schools, 66, 76; continuteacher in, 73; and railing influence on Acadiway, 57; students over six- Bourgeois, Dr Phileas, eduans, 18, 101, 116; limits cation and training, 137 teen, 71; support of to influence on AcadiBourgeois, Rev. Phileas: Schools Act in, 59, 85, ans, 11, 12, 17-18, 96; contributor to Moniteur, 160; see also Boudreau, 173; to Laval, 116; oriand Moniteur, 175; oppoJerome; Comeau family; sition to Schools Act, gins, 113—14; on practiTurgeon, Onesiphore 160; and politics, 160; see cal education, 197; Bernier, Dr Francoisalso Colleges, Colleges, speech at National ConXavier: and 1874 elecParish priests, and indition, 159; inspector unvention, 194; and status vidual priests of teachers, 74; teaching der Schools Act, 159, at St-Joseph, 116 Chatham: church school at, 185; in Madawaska, 132; 66; diocese established, Bourgeois, Dr Philippe, oriopposes John Costigan, 108; normal school at, gins, 135 159, 163; as party politi76; see also Colleges, St Bourque, Isidore: at Colcian, 163 Michael's; Rogers, lege d'Industrie, Joliette, Bernier, John, tanner and Bishop James 68; and elections, 151, commercial elite, 52 Bilodeau, Theophile: and *52, 154-5, 156; origins, Colleges: St Dunstan's, PEI, 67, 108; St 154; tavern licence, 166; 1870 election, 154-5; Michael's, Chatham, 86, teaching in Shediac, 77 Kent Railway, 167; pa108, 111, 114 Bourque, Dr Louistronage post, 157 Napoleon: education, Colleges: Barachois, 66; Biron, Rev. Eugene-Rai137; origins, 134, 136 and business, 52, 55; mond: at College Std'Industrie, Joliette, 68; Buctouche: and Acadian Louis, 111; and 1878 fund-raising, 55, 57; and business, 56; convent election, 164; speaking regional divisions, 65; school, 86, 172; Dr Alexat National Convention, and social life, 58 andre-Pierre Landry in, 197 - Ste-Anne-de-la164; Auguste Renaud Blanchard, Theotime, Pocatiere: Acadian stuand Gilbert-Anselme GirMHA: bill for use of dents at, 9, 69, 130; curouard in, 161; subscripFrench language, 163; riculum, 68; established tions to Moniteur, 174, businessman, 158; and 176; temperance society, 1874 election, 160; re1829, 15> problems at, 87; scholarships at, 69 190 tirement, 163; and

pay, 139

255 Index - Stjoseph: Acadians in English-language courses at, 77; catchment area, 81; complaints of anglophone influence at, 87; degree-granting institution 1868, 77; doctors at, 132—3, 134; as elite network, 11, 65, 93, !37> !59> l6 5> 181; established 1864, 77; farm size of parents, 84; fees, 77, 84; government grants to, 77, 187; lawyers and civil servants from, 130, 134; and Moniteur subscriptions 179; music at, 191; public speaking at, 181; and students over sixteen, 81; teaching standards at, 77>87 - St-Louis: closure, 117; fees, 92; problems at, 87; rivalry with St-Joseph, 58, 91, 117; teaching standards at, 87 - St-Thomas, 15, 68, 108; see also LaFrance, Rev. Francois-Xavier Colonization, 181-2; Acadieville, 109, 181, 189; Act of 1868, 181; Coal Branch, 189; and commerce, 182; and elite farmers, 43; and elite lifestyles, 21; Free Grants Act 1872, 189; lay influence, 103, 181, 189; and nationalism, 6, 8; Paquetville, 189; parish societies, 194; and priests, 108, 109, 181; Rogersville, 109, 189; secularization, 189; societe centrale acadienne de, 189; and urbanization, 8; see also Richard, Rev. M.-F. Comeau family: Bernard, carriage-maker, 57; Frederic, businessman, 57; Perry, carpenter, con-

tractor, and Schools Act supporter, 57, 59 Commerce: Acadian standards in, 52; alliance with anglophones in, 155, 156; as betrayal of Acadians, 12, 46; and colonization, 182; and railway scandals, 164, 167; support for at St-Joseph, 52, 55; support for in Moniteur, 53, 55, 58, 178; support for of Rev. F.-X. LaFrance, 52; support for of P.-A. Landry, 21,51,55,58,60 Confederation: Acadian views on, 152; and developing Acadian power, 16, 149, 152; and militia changes, 43; support of Rev.J.-F.-X. Michaud, 110 Conservative Party: and Acadian lawyers, 125, 138; attacks on in 1874, 1^3! and business, 55, 58; Georges Pelletier suggests candidate, 115 Continuity: in business elites, 57, 58; in education, 79, 84; in farming elites, 36, 43; in political elites, 166; at St-Joseph, 93; see also Family; Landry, Amand and PierreAmand; Theriault, Levite and Regis Convents: Buctouche, 86, 172; Caraquet, 86, no, 115; curriculum, 68, 87; by 1881, 85, 86; government grant 1871, 77; and increase in teachers, 87; Memramcook, 86; Miscouche, 69, 177; proposed for Shediac, 55; StBasile, 68, 69, 77, 87, 161; teaching standards at, 87; Tracadie, 86 Cormier, Rev. Andre, origins, 114

Cormier, Rev. FrangoisXavier: commissions artist, 112; education, 108; family, 109; in Saint John, no Costigan, John, MP: opposed by Dr F.-X. Bernier, 159, 163; opposition to Schools Act, 59; patronage of Acadians, 158; power in Madawaska, 59; support of anglophone Catholics, 149, 161 Cyr, Joseph: elected Maine, 148; and elections in New Brunswick, 148 Deportation: and family unity, 69; as unifying factor among Acadians, i o, 69; and use of delegates, 19, 141 Diversification: among elites, 94; and family employment, 38, 61; and off-farm employment, 7; and seasonal employment, 30; and Theriaults, 52 D'Olloqui, Dr R.A.: origins, 132; credit rating, 132 Dorchester: agricultural society, 41; dramatic society, 191; elite farmers, 13, 26, 27, 36, 37; farm labour statistics, 29; land shortage, 79—81; as market, 27; and students over sixteen, 79, 81, 91; see also Memramcook, StJoseph Doucet, L'Aimant: family, 115; labourer, 115; sheriff, 118 Doucet, Rev. Hilarion: in Bathurst, 115, 116; in Quaco, 115; teaching, H3 Doucet, Rev. Joseph: brother of L'Aimant, 115; labourer, 115

256 Index Doucet, Rev. Stanislaus: education, 114; origins, 105 Dramatic societies, 190—1 Dun, R.G. and Company: and Acadian businesses, 45, 46, 54; reporting methods, 13, 51

Frontier: as market, 46; opportunities for youth, 24, 29, 37; shifting, 56; see also Timber

Edmundston: seeMadawaska parish

149 Gaudet, Dr Edouard: education, 135; origins, 137; taking apprentices,

Family: alliances in business, 46, 61; and capital, 52, 53; as cross-class influence, 18-19,129;and education, 75, 93; of elite farmers, 24, 29, 37; as elite network, 34-5, 42,43, 115, 137; inclusion of anglophones, 137; and priesthood, 101, 102; of professionals, 134-5; see also Labour; Landry, Amand, Pierre-Amand, and Narcisse; Pelletiers; Poiriers; Theriaults Farm size: diminishing in Dorchester, 36; and elite farm status, 23, 27, 37; and inheritance, 25; and support for education, 79; see also Land shortage Fishermen: educating daughters, 76, 79; elite, 14; and entrepreneurs, 57, 61; and Schools Act, 89; and students over sixteen, 64, 75 Fournier, Dr Florent: activities, 131; origins, 130; and political office, 149 Franchise, qualifications, H5 Fredericton: Alphee Belliveau and Acadian presence, 138; grammar school, 67; Andre Laforest, 55; normal school, 76; subscriptions to Moniteur, 179

Gagnon, Prudent: and anglophone patronage, 149, 157: civil-service post, 166; and elections,

137 Gaudet, Dr Fidele: businessman, 57, 139; credit rating, 139; education, 137; origins, 135; speech on need for Acadian assertion, 181 Gavereau, Rev. Ferdinand, 108 Girouard, Antoine, MHA: elections, 84, 155, 161; JP, 157; and Kent Railway Company, 167; and Schools Act, 159; sheriff of Kent, 161; teacher, 82 Girouard, GilbertAnselme, MP: anglophone connections, 169; in business, 94, 161, 167; and elections, 138, 163, 164; and railway scandals, 164, 167; resignation, 167; at St-Joseph, 163; and temperance movement, 190; on value of education, 181 Gloucester County: anglophone influence, 39, 65; commercial elite, 57; literacy, 9, 40; politics in, 156-7; Protestant and anglophone schools in, 65; and Schools Act, 160; see also Anglin, Timothy Warren; Blanchard, Theotime; Caraquet; Fishermen; Grand Anse;

Hache, Juste; Inkerman; Jerseymen; Landry, Ubalde; Paulin, ProsperElise; Shippagan Goguen, Thadee: candidate in Kent, 161; trading in Europe, 168 Government funding: for address to the Marquis of Lome, 168; benefits to Acadians, 16; of College St-Joseph, 77, 187; Pierre-Amand Landry and distribution of, 136, 165, 167; power of Levite Theriault in distribution of, 111; in public-school system, 65, 85; of St-Basile convent

77

Grammar schools: Bathurst, 68, 76; Fredericton, 67; Grand Falls, 76; Richibucto, 76; Shediac, 76 Grand Anse, and business, 61 Hache, Hilarion: businessman and National Convention delegate, 58; father-in-law of Francis McManus, MHA, 59 Hache, Juste: finds opposition to education, 69; influence of Robert Young on, 161; opposes Anglin in 1872 election, 164; and Schools Act, 160; schoolmaster, 69 Hebert, Rev. Jean, in Saint John,115 Hebert, Patrice, candidate in 1870 by-election, 156 Hebert, Vital, MHA: death, 153; education, 84; elite farmer and politician, 151

Inkerman: and Moniteur subscriptions, 176; older elite farmers, 38

257 Index Jerseymen: in business, 61; in fishing elite, 14-15; and R.G. Dun and Company, 45 Johnson, Urbain, MHA: and colonization, 189; education, 74; elections, 1545, 163, 164, 165; farmer, 158; and Kent Railway Company, 167; militia officer, 159; origins, 154 Justices of the peace: and agricultural societies, 42; and business elite, 53- 57! characteristics in 1861, 74; and farming elite, 31,32, 38, 41,43; and farm size, 74, 84; and fishing elite, 15; and municipal councils, 193; and political office, 149, 152, 153. !54. 163; and priests, 105; and Schools Act, 160; and students over sixteen, 16, 81; and subscriptions to the Moniteur, 179; and teaching, 82, 92

Laforest, Dr Georges, origins, 134 LaFrance, Rev. FrancoisXavier: and business, 52; and College St-Thomas, 69; in Shediac, 81; and students over sixteen, 71 Lamothe, Dr Jean-Baptiste, teaching at St-Joseph, 133 Landry, Dr AlexandrePierre: activities, 138; as farmer, 151; and Morafew; 176; origins and education, 135,164,165; as politician, 138, 164 Landry, Amand, MHA: education, 75; as elite farmer, 31, 32-3; family, 133; as role model, 148; supported by Albert J. Smith, 148 Landry, Israel: as businessman, 53, 55, 57; character, 175; as editor, 55, 175; origins, 152; as politician, 54, 152-3 Landry, Narcisse: activities, 138; attorney and barrisKent County: competition ter, 133; and Conservafor francophone vote, tive Party, 138; and 154; literacy in, 9; politidramatic society, 191; family, 133; lending cal conventions, 154—5, 163-4; potato harvest, money, 139; in practice 41; railway, 42, 163, 167; at Dorchester, 134 regional divisions in, Landry, Pierre-Amand, 155, 165; urbanization MHA: and agrarianism, in, 9; see also Buctouche; 197; anglophone conJohnson, Urbain; Lenections, 155, 165, 169; Blanc, Olivier; Pelletier, attorney and barrister, Georges; Poiriers; Rich133; and business, 21, ibucto; Shediac 51, 55, 58, 60; and elections, 155, 161, 164; Labour,farm: 1861,29—30; and French Preparatory 1871, 38; as elite-farm Department, 117; and measurement standard, Moniteur, 176, 177; and 13; and farm equipment, National Convention, 39; sacrifice for educa117, i93ff; origins and tion, 75, 83; surplus to early career, 133; and parequirements, 32 tronage power, 136, Laforest, Andre, tinsmith, 165, 167; relations with AlbertJ. Smith, 155, 165; 53. 55- 57. 58

and temperance movement, 190 Landry, Ubalde, of Grand Anse, 57 Landry, Valentin: begins professional meetings for francophone teachers, 139; career, 134; origins, 136; pay, 139; at StJoseph, 130 Land shortage, i o, 64, 71, 79,83, 114, 122, 129 Langevin, Rev. Antoine: as influence on Acadians, 106, 130; scholarships for Madawaska students, 69; support for Francis Rice, 148 LeBlanc, Rev. Andre, family and origins, 114 LeBlanc, Rev. Hypolite, to Peres de Ste-Croix, 116 LeBlanc, Olivier-J.: attacks Conservatives, 163; and colonization, 182, 189; elite farmer and businessman, 57; and National Convention, 58; as politician, 57, 59, 154, 163, 164, 165 Lefebvre, Camille: against excessive Yankee profits, 60; director of College St-Joseph, 77; Moniteur subscription, 174; and National Convention, 194; stroke, 112; supported by Memramcook residents, 79 Leger, Dominique, political candidate, 155 Leger, Dr Joseph-Amable: marriage to Rosalie Landry, 137; origins, *35 Levasseur, Hilaire: brotherin-law of Rev. J. Pelletier, 109; politician and elite farmer, 149 Levasseur, Rev. Honore, influence of Rev. Joseph Pelletier, 114

258

Index

Liberal Party: Acadian supporters, 138, 156, 163; and temperance, 190 Literacy: of Acadians in 1871, g; and business, 51, 54, 57; as economic advantage, 14, 24-5; and elite farm status, 39-40; facilitating spread of nationalism, 63; family variations, 75, 84, go; of parents of professionals, !25' !37

lobster canning, 56, 57, 61 local government, 185-6; and elite farmers, 32, 38, 41; importance for Acadian development, 15, 31; and Moniteur subscriptions, 179; and politics, 148, 154; and professionals, 131; see also Justices of the peace, Municipal councils Lussier, Norbert: and 1870 election, 155; and Moniteur, 55, 175; and temperance movement, 182 McGuirk, Rev. Hugh: against Confederation, 152; disputes with Rev. M.-F. Richard, 82; influence on Rev. J.-F.-X. Michaud; and railway, 187; and St-Basile convent, 68, 6g, 73; support of John Costigan, 149 Madawaska, parish (Edmunds ton) : and anglophone elites, 52; decline in elite business, 56; elite farmers, 29; population growth, 35; timber trade, 29 Madawaska, region: and college education, 65; early political activity, 148; and farming elite, 27; less literacy among elite farmers, go; loses lead in education, g, 7g,

122; lower farm-labour levels, 30, 38; politics in, 5g, 163; and Schools Act, i5g; separate county 1874, I5g; slower urbanization, g; and timber frontier, 25, 2g, 35; see a&oBernier, Dr F.-X.; Costigan, John; StBasile; St-Francois; StLeonard; Theriault, Levite and Regis Maillet, Dr J.-B.-E.: and Moniteur, 176; in Shediac, 132; supports Schools Act, 160; teaching at College St-Joseph, 132 markets: and elite farmers and business, 56; growth of, g, 10, 11, 15; importance of francophones in, 53, 55; response to, 25'32,35'4 1 ; b y s e a '25> 28, 53; store-keepers as middlemen, 53; timber trade as, 25 Melanson, Olivier, businessman, 56 Memramcook: convent, 86; and Moniteur, 178; temperance society, igo; see also College St-Joseph, Dorchester Mersereau, George, Baptist graduate of UNB: teaching in Bathurst, g i; and Teachers Association, 192 Michaud, Rev. JosephFrancois-Xavier: and agricultural society, 188; disputes with parishioners, 112; family, 109, 110; as nationalist, 118; origins, 107; and politics, 110; to Rome, 111; in Saint John, no, 112; subscribing to Moniteur, 174; and temperance movement, 190 Militia, 182-5; and business, 54, 57; and elite

farmers, 34, 41, 43; and political office, 149,

!53. 159 Mobility: in business, 50, 52, 55, 57; of doctors, 125, 128, 138; of elite farmers, 41, 42; of elites, i8-ig; of professionals, 138; of teachers, 73; as threat to clerical influence, g6 Moncton: as Acadian community, g; grammar school, 66; as market, 53; and Moniteur, 176, 178; musical band, 191; and railway, 187; rival to Shediac, 56; temperance society, 190 Moniteur Acadien, 7, 15, 16; and agrarianism, 43-4; and business elite, 53, 55, 58; and education, 79; increased subscriptions, 177-8, 180; influence, 79; and National Convention, 180; and Quebec, 171; subscriptions of doctors, 138; subscriptions of politicians, 168, 177, 180; subscriptions of priests, 118, 177, 180; subscriptions of teachers, 176, 179; support of priests, 173; support of women, 177, 178-9 Municipal councils, 1923; characteristics by 1881, g3~4; and commercial elite, 57; and educated elite, g3; and elite farmers, 43; and political elite, 167 Music: at colleges, 191; as commercial activity, 53, 55> 57> as social activity, 190-1; see also Landry, Israel Nadeau, Mathias: businessman, 56; and National

259 Index Convention, 58, 196; origins, 57; supported by Moniteurin politics, 59; wealth, 57 National Convention, 17, 193-9; agrarianism, 197; as attempt to reach consensus, 145; and business elite, 58; and offfarm occupations, 197; and priests, 194 Neguac, college, 85 Newcastle, francophone sister at convent, 82 Normal schools: Chatham, 76; former St-Joseph students attending, 89; Fredericton, 76; French Preparatory Department, 86; Fort Kent, Maine, 76; students attending, 89 Off-farm labour: growing diversification, 38; timber trade, 25, 38 Ouellet, Rev. Antoine: origins, 107; in Saint John, no, 112 Ouellet, Rev. LouisJoseph: agrarianism, 197; and agricultural society, 188; and colonization, 189, 197; origins, 107; in SteMarie, 108 Parish priests: and agricultural societies, 188; financial problems of, 104, 148; and fund-raising, 187; influence of, 17, 64, 81, 90; and land shortage, 37; and merchants, 50, i o i; and parish associations, 102; as patrons, 102; and politics, 157, 164; as role models, 102; and students over sixteen, 71 Patronage: by Acadian politicians, 133, 157, 161, 166, 167; by anglo-

phone politicians, 54, 148, 131, 151, 155, 158, 163, 165; and doctors, 132, 133; links politicians and businessmen, 46; and priests, 48, 102 Paulin, Prosper-Elise: and elections, 160; and Moniteur, 175; and National Convention, 196 Pelletier, Celestin, providing for family, 71, 109 Pelletier, Georges: brother of Rev. Joseph and merchant, 107; poor business risk, 115; suggested Conservative candidate, 115; supports PierreAmand Landry in election, 165; supports Schools Act, 160 Pelletier, Hilaire, businessman and political candidate, 52 Pelletier, Rev. Joseph: and Caraquet convent, 110; and Caraquet Riots, no; and colonization, 181; family, 109, 115; influence on younger priests, 114; and Kent election, 153; and Moniteur, i n , 175, 176; moved to StFrancois, 111; at National Convention, i n , 197; new church, 108; origins, 106-7 Pelletier, Dr Thomas: family, 109, 131; mobility, 131 Petit Rocher: see Beresford Pinguet, Dr Jean-C., 131 Poirier, Andre: as businessman, 56; exporter, 57; marriage, 61; origins, 55 Poirier, Fidele: character, 56; and Moniteur, 176-7; origins and early business career, 51; recovery, 55-6; setback, 52; supports P.-A. Landry, 165;

and temperance movement, 190; wealth, 57 Poirier, Pascal: called to run in election, 164; enthusiasm for education, 84; family, 55; and Moniteur, 173; and National Convention, 193; postmaster of House of Commons, 134, 136; and StJean-Baptiste Convention, 168; at St-Joseph, 130 Political conventions: and Acadian independence, 19; in Kent, 154—5, 1 ^3> 164; and Moniteur, 179; and priests, 113; in Westmorland, 155-6 Population: Acadian, 8, 16, go; Acadian growth areas, 35; Acadians as market, 53; Acadians as percentage in communities, 36; Acadians as percentage in counties, 142; of New Brunswick, 15; of urbanized Acadians, 15—16, 142 Power elite, 5, 12, 26 Production levels: of elite farmers, 13, 32; of elite fishermen, 14—15 Quebec: and Acadian feast day, 198; attitude to education in, 25; as ally, 110; differences from Acadia, 9-10, 11, 18,95,97, 1 19, 122, 125,

128,

130,

140; and education of doctors, 132, 137; influences on Acadia, 9, 11, 17, 50, 79, 92; and marriage, 137; and Moniteur, 171; newspapers from, 172; and politicians, 153; and priests, 64, 68; students at St-Joseph, 181; see also Belcourt, Rev. Georges; Colleges, d'Industrie and Ste-

260 Index Anne-de-la-Pocatiere; Convents; Gavereau, Rev. Ferdinand; Lafrance, Rev. F.-X.; Landry, Israel; Langevin, Antoine; Lefebvre, Camille Railways: claims against, 165; development of, 16; increasing regional disputes, 35, 163, 164; Kent Company, 167; in Madawaska, 35; as markets, 26, 27; and Moniteur, 178; work on, 25, 113; and politicians, 155; and priests, 112, 187; Shediac/Moncton rivalry for, 35.18? Renaud, Auguste: anglophone connections, 169; businessman, 161, 168; elections, 153, 161, 163, 164; farmer, teacher, and politician, 82;jP, 157;and Kent convention, 154; and Moniteur, 175; origins, 152; and railways, 163, 165; and scandal, 163-4 Renouard, Henri, teacher, 82 Rents, 31 Rice, Francis, MHA: legislative councillor, 149; patron, 131,149 Richard, Ambroise-David: attorney and barrister, 133; businessman, 135, 138; in Dorchester, 134; origins, 130; at St-Joseph 137 Richard, Rev. MarcelFrancois: agrarianism, 197; agricultural society, 111, 188; and Bishop Rogers, 111, 117; church-building, 108, 109, 111; and convent school, 111; education and origins, 107-8; and P.-A. Landry, 117; and

Rev. Hugh McGuirk, 82, 111; organizes shrine and pilgrimage, 118; and temperance, 190; see also College St-Louis Richibucto: and Acadian business, 51; Acadian postmaster appointed, 157; Dr D'Olloqui in, 132; grammar school, 66, 76; and Moniteur, 175, 176; Rev.J. Pelletier in, 175; and railway scandals, 161; support for education, 73 Robichaud, Dominique, opposition to priest and election, 148 Robichaud, Hippolyte, lobster dealer, 57 Robidoux, Ferdinand: and commerce, 60; and Conservative Party, 179; as editor, 175, 176; and Kent convention, 164; and National Convention, 193; and Shediac,

Theriault, Levite and Regis Ste-Marie, Kent: agricultural society, 41, 188; commercial elite, 57; elite farmers, 37, 57; opportunities for young farmers, 37; Rev. Joseph Ouellet in, no; transportation, 41; see also LeBlanc, OlivierJ. St-Francois, Madawaska: and business, 56; elite farmers in, 35, 37; growth with timber frontier, 35; Rev.J. Pelletier in, 111; young farmers, 37; see also Nadeau, Matthias St-Hilaire, Madawaska, 40 Saint John, NB: Acadian priests in, no, 112; normal school, 66; railway, 16; see also Sweeney, Bishop John St-Leonard, Madawaska: agricultural society, 32, 40; elite farmers in, 28, 35; !79 influence of Leonard Rogers, Bishop James: and Coombes, 148 elections, 160; influence St-Louis, Kent: agricultural on Acadian priests, 108, society, 40; convent no; and Schools Act, school, 86, 111; election 161; and Societe St1870, 157; elite farmers, Frangois de Sales, 188; see also Colleges, St 37, 27; interest in education, 79; opportunities Michael's; College Stfor young farmers, 37; Louis; Richard, Rev. M.-F. and railway scandals, 164; students over sixSt-Basile, Madawaska: aging teen, 79, 81; teachers, population, 38; agricul73; temperance society, tural society, 32, 40; con190; transportation, 41, vent school at, 15, 69, 28; see also College St73; declining imporLouis; Richard, Rev. M.-F. tance, 38, 56; and elite Saumarez (Tracadie): farmers, 13, 27, 28; and Revs. J.-A. Babineau and local government, 148; Stanislaus Doucet in, low farm labour, 30, 38; teachers, 73; and timber 176; benefits of Schools Act, 89; convent school, trade, 25; see also College 86; elite farmers, 36; limSte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere; Langevin, Anited support for educatoine; Madawaska region; tion, 69, 71; Lutheran

261 Index schoolteacher in, 71; and Moniteur, 176; percentage of Acadians in, 36; and Young family, 156; see also Savoie, Justinian; Young, Robert Savoie, Justinian: background and 1870 election, is6;jp, 157 Schools: attendance of elite farm families, 41; development and farm elite, 69, 79; French 1861, 67; 1871,76; 1881,85; grants to poorer areas, 85 Schools Act, NB: Acadian opposition to, 18, 159, 160; Acadian support for, 17,58-9,85, 15960, 160; demand for education during school closures, 65, 85; effect on Acadian nationalism, no, 161; and elections, 157, 161; immediate results, 84; long-term results, 85, 89 secularization, 17-18, 21, 85, 96; of colonization, 113; limits to, 103; of politics, 113; of recreation, 181; as result of government intervention, 116; of temperance societies, 113; and urbanization, 116 Shediac: as Acadian community, 55, 56;advantages for commerce, 51; agricultural society, 41, 32; alliance of business interests, 156; Club des amateurs and Corps de musique, 191; convent proposed, 55; and education, 69, 79, 81; elite farmers in, 27, 28, 32, 35. 36> 39; grammar school, 76; and Moniteur, 174, 176, 178; National Convention, 58; ploughs

of, 55, 58, 190; and P.-A. Landry, 133; laymen on committees, 113; and priests, 112, 116, 119; and prohibition movement, 190; societies, 190 Theriault, Levite, MHA: and agricultural society, 53, 159; businessman, 56; Crown land and timber holdings, 52; donation to convent, 161; education, 52; elections, 52, 153, 161, 165; Executive Council appointment, 161; inheritance, 52; and Legislative Council, 167; militia officer, 153; move to Quebec, 56; National Convention, 58; and patronage, 161, 167; and Schools Act, 59 Theriault, Regis: elite businessman and farmer, 31; father of Levite, 52 Timber trade: Acadians in, 24,31,38-9,52,56; changing location, 35, 56; and colonization, 182; as employment, 25, 38; as market, 25, 35; see also Nadeau, Matthias; Theriault, Levite Teachers: associations, Turgeon, Onesiphore: an187, 191-2; as bridge profession, 14, 20, 57, glophone connections, 169; background, 165, 82, 92, 125, 128; and 167; and church, 160; infarm elite, 34, 42; as futervenes with Intercoloture JPS, 82; hiring, 66; nial Railway, 165; and as householders, 74, 83, National Convention, 93; licensing, 66; limited 195; as politician, 160; support of, 69; and Moniand Schools Act, 160 teur, 176, 179; paid without licence, 67—8; United States: as export payment of, 66, 74, 77, market, 57, 176; immi85; and politicians, 153, gration to, 60; as influ!54> *55' iS6. 164; staence on doctors, 104, tus, 74; and students over sixteen, 15, 64, 73, 125, 130, 136, 137 Urbanization: and Acadian 82 artisans, 61; of Acadians, Temperance: association 9, 10, 11; accentuates rewith anglophones, 182, 190; business support gional divisions, 155; as-

and farm labour, 39; as port, 41; priests in, 87; professionals in, 134; railway, 16, 35, 36, 56, 187; Societe d'education, 187; superior school, 76, 77; support for Schools Act, 160; teachers, 73, 82; and temperance, 182, 190; see also Bourque, Isidore; Pelletier, Georges; Poirier, Fidele and Andre; Robidoux, Ferdinand Shippagan: and farm elite, 38; fishing elite, 14; students at St-Joseph, 81 Smith, Albert J.: defeats Israel Landry, 153; and Kent Railway Company, 167, 192; and Amand Landry, 148, 151; and PA. Landry, 155, 165; and Pascal Poirier, 163 Superior schools, 66, 76, 85 Sweeney, Bishop John: location of Acadian priests in Saint John, no; support of Rev. J.-F.-X. Michaud, i n

262 Index sedations, 18, 128; increases hostility to commerce, 59; in Madawaska, 79; mobility, 19, 38; priests, 102, 112, 115; of professionals, 122—4; proletariat, g, 59; provides markets, 51 Victoria County: agricultural society, 182; established 1850, 145; potato harvest in, 41; separated from Madawaska, 159 Westmorland County: agriculture, 27; conven-

tions, 165; and politics, ucate, 82, 83; and Moni59-60, 155-6; and temteur, 177, 178-9; perance, 190; see also Sackville Ladies AcadBabin, Alphee; College emy, 81; in teaching, 67; St-Joseph; Dorchester; see also Convents Landry, Amand, PierreAmand, and Narcisse; Young, Robert: influence Lefebvre, Camille; Memon Acadians, 59, 156, ramcook; Moncton; 161, 164; president of Smith, Albert J. agricultural society, 189; Women: Bourque, Celina, and Schools Act, 160 172; and business, 55, Youth: of commercial elite, 178; and education in 54, 57; of frontier farmDorchester, 79, 81; and ers, 29, 37; increase in education in fishing parents keeping children communities, 76, 77; as in school, 90 elite, 15; incentives to ed-